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Federal agents were warned last year that a Minuteman group was planning to shut down a large section of freeway in central Arizona in an attempt to catch smugglers crossing through the desert, according to a secret law enforcement memo leaked last week.

The April 28, 2010 memo said the U.S. Border Patrol had received information that the group, which went by the name “A Concerned Citizen,” was recruiting people to help it shut down part or all of a 30-mile stretch of Interstate 8 between Casa Grande and Gila Bend.

The group reportedly wanted to carry out the operation to show support for Arizona’s strict new immigration law, known as SB1070, which had been signed by Gov. Jan Brewer five days prior.

The document didn’t say where the Border Patrol got its information, but it was clear the agency was worried about the development. It said the “tone of this information is quite unlike” that of better-publicized operations by Minuteman groups that had patrolled the borderlands.

“If this new operation happens,” the memo said, “there could be potential for human rights violations and a possibility of violence between armed civilians and smugglers or with law enforcement.”

The memo was among more than 700 files leaked Thursday by hacker group LulzSec, which said it obtained them by breaking into the email accounts of several Arizona Department of Public Safety officers. Many of the files, like this one, were bulletins from other agencies, marked as “law enforcement sensitive” and meant to be kept secret from the public.

In a statement after the hack, DPS said none of the documents appeared to be “related to ongoing investigations or other sensitive matters.”

Still, many of the files revealed incidents or plots that were never made public previously. Another memo leaked by the hacker group, for instance, revealed that Border Patrol agents found a roadside bomb along a smuggling route in 2009. The bomb exploded while it was being investigated, but it’s unclear whether anyone was injured.

In the memo about the freeway plot, a Border Patrol analyst said such activities had been stoked by recent events in Arizona. Specifically, the analyst mentioned the disbanding of the high-profile Minuteman Civil Defense Corps and the killing of rancher Robert Krentz, whose death, the analyst said, was “being touted as the work of a drug cartel.”

“It is not surprising that another contingent of Minutemen types has come to life,” the analyst said.

In addition to the freeway shutdown, which never was carried out, the memo also mentioned a phone call that a Border Patrol agent received March 27, 2010 from a man calling himself “Daniel Webster.” The man said the he and a group of “concerned citizens” had spotted several vehicles loaded with illegal immigrants on or near Interstate 8.

Agents searched the area but were unable to find the vehicles. The memo speculated that the phone call may have been somehow connected to the group planning to shut down the freeway.

A U.S. Border Patrol agent discovered a roadside bomb planted in the dirt along a known smuggling route west of Tucson in 2009, according to a secret memo leaked during last week’s hacking of Arizona Department of Public Safety email accounts.

The May 2009 memo, written by the Pima County Sheriff’s Department bomb squad and marked “not for public or media dissemination,” said the explosive detonated during the subsequent investigation. The document didn’t say whether anyone was hurt in the explosion.

The memo said the device appeared to be “moderately complex” in its construction. It was made out of pipe and wrapped in wires.

It was unclear to investigators at the time who planted the bomb or why. Law enforcement officers patrolling the area were told to be extra careful and to look out for similar devices. The investigation was handed off to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives as well as the FBI.

Although investigators didn’t name any suspects in the memo, white supremacist groups in Arizona have talked in the past about putting explosives along the border to hurt or kill immigrants who illegally sneak into the U.S.

A year after the explosive was discovered, neo-Nazis were spotted at a Tea Party rally in Tempe, handing out fliers calling for landmines to be placed along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Then in January of this year, a suspected neo-Nazi from the Phoenix area was accused of making improvised explosive devices to supply to border vigilantes.

The new memo was among 700 files leaked by the hacker group LulzSec, which broke into the accounts of DPS employees last week. The group claimed the hack was in retaliation for Arizona passing harsh immigration laws last year.

Sheriff Paul Babeu made it clear Friday he wants an armed group of neo-Nazis to stay out of Pinal County, but acknowledged there is nothing he can do to stop them.

The sheriff was concerned with reports that the group, led by J.T. Ready of the National Socialist Movement, was planning to set up camp this weekend in the vast desert south of Phoenix to hunt for drug and human smugglers.

“Not only did we not ask for, we do not want any activity by a neo-Nazi, racist group,” Babeu said in a phone interview Friday afternoon. “This group that’s here — it really is not helpful.”

However, the sheriff also acknowledged the group had a right to be on public land as long as they don’t commit any crimes. “If they want to go out there, there are certain rights that some people have.”

None of Babeu’s deputies will actively track the group, the sheriff said, but he plans to keep in “constant contact” with his lieutenant in the area as well as 911 dispatchers in case anything goes wrong.

Babeu also said he personally canceled a number of appointments this weekend to monitor things more closely. “I’m going to be in the area,” he said. “We take all this information very seriously.”

Ready, who is leading the excursion, could not be reached for a response to Babeu’s comments. However, he said in a voice mail message was already out in the desert all day and was planning to hold a news conference Saturday afternoon.

Just three weeks ago, Ready was spotted at a tea party rally in Tempe, handing out fliers calling for landmines to be placed along the U.S.-Mexico border to put a stop to illegal immigration. The fliers carried Ready’s name and the letters “N.S.M.” — or National Socialist Movement, the nation’s largest neo-Nazi organization.

During multiple television interviews this week, Ready showed off a large collection of guns, ammunition, tear gas and other equipment he plans to take with him into the desert.

In a comment he posted Friday on this website, he said his gathering was part of a “war” to “take back these areas” from groups he considers “narco-terrorists.”

Ready has a history of armed confrontation with immigrants. In 2006, he cornered a Hispanic man on a dead-end street and ended up opening fire with a .38 revolver after he said the man shot at him with a BB gun. Ready was not arrested or charged in the incident.

Bill Strauss, who leads the Phoenix office of the Anti-Defamation League, said hate groups like Ready’s are growing in prominence thanks in part to the fervor over the immigration debate.

“They are growing, yeah,” Strauss said. “They’re growing as a result of the economy. And the election of President Obama. And certainly immigration.”

But Strauss also noted that they have been unable to go mainstream, despite efforts to recruit at many of the right-leaning anti-government rallies that have spread across the U.S.

Strauss noted that many in the mainstream have pushed away these kinds of hate groups.

The Arizona Republican Party, for instance, used to have Ready in a leadership role as a precinct committeeman before finding out about his racist beliefs. They have since disavowed him.

Also, state Sen. Russell Pearce, the immigration hardliner and Republican who sponsored Arizona’s new immigration law, used to count Ready as an ally but has since distanced himself from his fellow Mesa resident.

Pearce eventually saw Ready’s allegiance as “an embarrassment,” Strauss said.

In terms of the kind of vigilante justice Ready and his group are now trying to create, Strauss said it’s important for police to send a strong signal against that, too.

“I think law enforcement should be very clear and very loud in sending the message that they don’t want untrained citizens enforcing the law,” he said.

That was exactly what Babeu, the Pinal County sheriff, appeared to be doing Friday after learning about Ready’s racist beliefs.

A Republican, the sheriff has emerged as a growing figure in the immigration debate in recent months. He has often appeared alongside fellow Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, including in a television commercial in which they called for the U.S. government to finish “the danged fence” along the Arizona-Mexico border.

When contacted about Ready’s group on Friday, the sheriff at first stuck to his political talking points, sending out a written statement that blamed President Obama for the broken immigration system and called for more troops along the southern border.

The statement went onto say he appreciated the “support and offer to take up arms and patrol” from Americans nationwide, but that it “would not be helpful.” He asked all civilian groups to stay home.

But after being pointed to the flier Ready was handing out at the tea party rally on May 29, Babeu called Heat City to send a stronger message. He wanted to be clear that his appreciation of support did not extend to hate groups.

“This last week we have gotten about 100 calls and emails a day by people across America,” Babeu said. “But not this group. I’ve never had contact with this group.”

Just three weeks ago at a tea party rally in Tempe, he handed out fliers calling for landmines to be placed along the Mexican border to prevent illegal immigrants from crossing into Arizona.

Now, neo-Nazi J.T. Ready says he plans to lead an armed group into the desert south of Phoenix this weekend to put a stop to what he called “narco-terrorists.”

Ready appeared decked out in camouflage during an interview Wednesday with KPNX (Channel 12). He showed off a stockpile of guns and ammunition he plans to take with him and claimed his group will stake out an area of Pinal County that drug smugglers use as a route to bring “chemical warfare into Phoenix.”

Ready has grabbed more traction with local media in recent months as the debate over illegal immigration heats up. He has also appeared frequently at rallies and protests in support of Arizona’s new immigration law, hoping to attract supporters to his cause.

That was no different on May 29 at the “Stand With Arizona” rally in Tempe, an event organized by several tea party groups.

Ready was there handing out fliers for the Mesa chapter of the National Socialist Movement, the largest neo-Nazi group in the United States.

The fliers carried Ready’s name and a picture of a landmine. “We all should be actively advocating daily to mainstream America the most humane, non-racist, fair border security plan available,” they said. “Namely, A MINEFIELD!”

The flier, photocopied on plain-white paper, carried the letters “N.S.M.” as well as the address for post office box in Mesa, a local phone number and an email address that contained the number 88, a neo-Nazi code meaning “Heil Hitler.”

Ready and another man told Heat City that night they handed out 1,000 fliers at the event but were having little success getting their message across.

Ready has a history of engaging in armed confrontation with immigrants.

When he was running for Mesa City Council in 2006 — a race in which he came in second place — he followed a vehicle down a dead-end street and corned a Hispanic man who later turned out to be an illegal immigrant.

Ready said the man opened fire on him with a BB gun, and he returned fire with a .38 revolver he pulled from an ankle holster.

Both escaped injury and police arrested the other man that night. A month later, the man pleaded guilty to giving a false name to authorities.

The fact that the man received such a minor charge upset Ready, who told the judge overseeing the case that the other man should have been convicted of assault. Ready called it at the time “a travesty of justice.”

Special agent Tom Mangan said investigators with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were at the Peoria home of governor’s spokesman Paul Senseman, whose garage was hit with the explosive while he and his family slept. The attack caused some damage to the garage door but did not set the house on fire.

Mangan declined to speculate on a motive for the attack, which was first reported this afternoon by the Arizona Republic. He referred all other questions to Peoria police, who were also being assisted by the state Department of Public Safety.

Maricopa County detention officer Adam Stoddard should have never been sent to jail for sneaking a document from the confidential files of a defense attorney, the Arizona Court of Appeals ruled today.

A three-judge panel decided [PDF] that, while Stoddard’s actions did break rules of the court, forcing him to spend time behind bars because he refused to hold a news conference and publicly apologize for his actions was too harsh a penalty. The judges sent the case back to the lower court to find a new, lighter punishment for the detention officer.

“We’re happy,” said Stoddard’s attorney, Tom Liddy, after the decision was published. “Ordering a press conference was absurd. We knew it. They knew it.”

Stoddard’s case rose to national attention last year after he was caught on a courtroom security video taking a handwritten letter from the files of a defense attorney while her back was turned.

The attorney, Joanne Cuccia, cried foul, saying that the attorney-client privilege had been violated. But Stoddard said he saw the words “going to,” “steal” and “money” on the letter and believed a crime was about to take place.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Gary Donahoe later determined the letter was harmless and found Stoddard in contempt of court for taking it. The judge ordered Stoddard to hold a news conference to apologize for the gaffe.

But Stoddard refused, saying he stood by his actions. In turn, Donahoe sent him to jail for 10 days in December for defying his order.

Tuesday’s ruling essentially said that Donahoe was right to dole out a punishment, but he was wrong to make Stoddard choose between apologizing and going to jail.

The appeals court recommended that Stoddard be forced to pay a fine or go through extra training in “courtroom decorum,” but it left that decision up to the superior court.

The attorney who first recommended that Stoddard be punished for his actions said he was “frustrated” by the court’s decision to throw out the tougher punishment.

“I still can’t understand why it is so horrible to require someone to say ‘I’m sorry,’” said Craig Mehrens, who was brought on to represent Cuccia, the original defense attorney in the case. “All he had to do was say, ‘I’m sorry. I made a mistake.’”

Mehrens pointed out that every judge who has heard the case has agreed Stoddard broke some serious rules of court conduct. “Yet what has happened?” he said. “Well, they have suggested maybe a fine.”

Mehrens also noted that any fine will likely be paid with taxpayer funds rather than out of the detention officer’s pocket. In numerous other cases where Maricopa County Sheriff’s employees have been fined, their employer has picked up the tab.

“I don’t see a lot of justice,” Mehrens said.

Still, Stoddard’s attorney said the detention officer has learned a serious lesson about court ethics.

“The fact of the matter is that Adam Stoddard is not going to make that mistake again,” said Liddy, “He knows about the attorney-client privilege and he understands the breadth of it.”

It’s not clear yet which judge will decide Stoddard’s new fate, but one thing is certain: It won’t be Donahoe. The longtime judge retired last week.

Two separate threats were made to one of the court’s main towers, known as the East Court Building, sometime after it opened this morning, according to the court’s highest ranking judge, Barbara Rodriguez Mundell.

Sheriff’s and security officials evacuated the building, and investigators swept through it with bomb-sniffing dogs, Mundell said in a written statement.

No bombs were found, Mundell said, and the courts were reopened again by noon.

Similar threats were made to the county’s main courthouse and nearby buildings back in early December, a time when the justice system had already been thrown into chaos with battles between the sheriff’s office, local prosecutors and judges.

A federal grand jury is examining possible criminal charges against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, according to reports by two Phoenix television stations.

KPHO (Channel 5) and KPNX (Channel 12) both reported during their evening broadcasts that a grand jury is looking into accusations that Arpaio has abused his law enforcement power with criminal investigations of critics and political foes. The sheriff’s No. 2 man, Chief Deputy David Hendershott, is also targeted in the investigation, KPNX reported.

The stations said two of Maricopa County’s top appointed officials, County Manager David Smith and County Budget Director Sandi Wilson, received subpoenas to appear before the grand jury next week.

The move represents a significant step forward in at least one of multiple investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice, some of which have been ongoing since the Bush Administration.

Arpaio’s office did not respond to Heat City’s request for comment on the latest report. But in the past, the sheriff has taunted critics, telling them to “call the FBI, call the FBI” and saying he didn’t believe the feds would act.

But a grand jury shows federal officials believe they have enough evidence to charge Arpaio, and possibly other sheriff’s officials, with a crime. Grand juries are made up of citizens who decide whether investigators have collected enough evidence to charge someone with a crime.

Smith and Wilson have clashed with the sheriff’s office in the past, including limiting the Arpaio’s spending and budget.

Both have also become targets of a wide-ranging criminal investigation by the sheriff’s and county attorney’s offices, which has gone after at least 14 county officials and resulted in criminal charges against three of them.

Smith and Wilson are not among the officials who have been charged with crimes.

Update: The Arizona Republic is reporting that three of the sheriff’s own men have testified before a federal grand jury sometime in the past four months, but the nature of their testimony is unclear.

Arpaio told the Republic his office would continue doing business as usual. “We’re just going to continue doing our job and our investigations that we have in progress.”

Update 2: KTVK (Channel 3) has also confirmed the subpoenas and talked to one witness, who said testimony would focus on Arpaio’s “reign of terror.” The video is posted above.

A judge in neighboring Pinal County today put a temporary halt to the criminal case against him by Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas and Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the Arizona Republic reported. The case is now on hold until the state Supreme Court decides whether to toss the charges for good.

Thomas and Arpaio have accused Donahoe, one of the most powerful judges in Maricopa County, of obstructing justice and taking bribes because he ruled against them in cases earlier this year.

In his political campaigns, Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas has fashioned himself as a man of law, a prosecutor offering no tolerance to those who step past certain boundaries.

But on Monday, hundreds of lawyers gathered in front of the county’s main courthouse in downtown Phoenix to tell Thomas they believe he has crossed a line himself with his an ongoing war against some of the area’s most-powerful judges.

In recent weeks, the prosecutor has launched criminal investigations or leveled felony charges against several Superior Court judges, mostly for decisions they made from the bench.

“By your very conduct, Mr. Thomas, you have become a threat to the rule of law and to the very Constitution you swore to uphold,” attorney Tom Ryan shouted into the microphone, raising cheers and applause from the crowd. “You have made yourself a domestic enemy to our Constitution.”

Ryan’s brother is Superior Court Judge Timothy Ryan, one of the ranking members of the Superior Court bench Thomas has not accused of wrongdoing. But Tom Ryan said the rally was not about personal grudges, but about righting wrongs.

He also emphasized it was not a partisan event. Like Thomas, Ryan described himself as a lifeline conservative Republican, but he said he has had enough of the prosecutor’s antics.

“Andrew Thomas is a bully and a coward,” said Ryan. “When he does not get his own way, he abuses his awesome power.”

The rally drew more than 300 protesters, most of them attorneys or legal professionals but also some local activists who brought their own complaints against Thomas and his ally, Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Despite the crowd having mixed agendas, organizers and speakers tried to keep the rally focused sharply on Thomas’ battles with the judiciary, saying the criminal investigations of judges are unprecedented and must be stopped.

“The reason that we’re here is that over the last 30 days, Andrew Thomas has stepped over the line,” said Phoenix attorney Shawn Aiken. “We’ve had enough.”

The rally came in the midst of a major legal assault Thomas launched in the past month against the majority of Maricopa County’s leadership.

As part of the campaign, Thomas and Arpaio have filed a federal lawsuit against 12 county officials, including four judges, accusing them of engaging in a massive conspiracy to diminish the powers held by the two men. A week after filing the lawsuit, Thomas indicted two of those officials on charges of fraud and corruption. They have since pleaded not guilty.

But it was the felony charges Thomas filed on Dec. 9 against Superior Court Judge Gary Donahoe that outraged so many local lawyers.

Thomas accused Donahoe of obstructing justice and accepting bribes in a case earlier this year where the judge shut down an investigation by the sheriff’s office into other county officials. Essentially, Thomas alleged that Donahoe killed the investigation so those officials would move ahead with plans to build a new courthouse for the Superior Court.

The charges against Donahoe were incredibly timed. They came just two weeks after the judge made another decision from the bench that sent one of the sheriff’s own officers to jail for contempt of court. It was a decision Thomas’ allies attacked as politically motivated. The charges also followed other high-profile decisions the judge made against Thomas and his office.

The attorneys who gathered Monday said they believed Thomas was abusing his prosecutorial power to go after judges who had ruled against him.

“If no one else is going to stand up to the county attorney,” said Aiken, “lawyers must.”

While the lawyers who spoke represented an array of practices – from plaintiffs attorneys to public defenders – a spokesman for the county attorney tried to lump them all together as “defense lawyers” and therefore natural enemies of a tough prosecutor.

“If defense lawyers stood up and praised Andrew Thomas, I’d be concerned,” said Barnett Lotstein, a special assistant county attorney. “It’s just the norm and we’re used to it.”

But the rally outside the courthouse was anything but normal.

Many of the attorneys who spoke at the event marveled at just how unusual it was to see such a large and diverse gathering of lawyers, a profession that tends to push paper rather than protest.

“It’s about time,” said Robert McWhirter of the county’s legal defender’s office.

Protesters carried signs with messages like: “You can’t indict just because you’re in a fight;” and “We are a nation of laws not men.”

In terms of size, this rally trumped another one held two weeks ago at the same location by a much different group.

Employees from the sheriff’s office rallied outside the courthouse Dec. 3 to protest a decision by Judge Donahoe to throw one of their colleagues in jail for contempt of court. The rally, surprising then for its size, brought out about 100 uniformed men and women.

Monday’s event was sparked by an email written by attorney James Belanger that went viral in local and national legal circles. In it, he called for the rally “to show the rest of this county and the country that there are many, many people who do not agree with the way the county attorney conducts himself and his office.”

At the rally, Belanger compared the attorneys to sparrows chasing away a dangerous hawk. He said he was proud of the outcome.

“It’s incredible that we’re here to show our support for the rule of law,” he said. “And it’s incredible that we’re here to oppose this attack on our judiciary.”

He then asked the crowd to spend 60 seconds in silence in the shadow of the courthouse, followed by a recitation of the oath attorneys swear when they are admitted to practice in Arizona.

The protesters closed out the afternoon by singing verses of “America the Beautiful.”