Arizona has never been known for squeaky-clean politics.

Its elected officials have been embroiled in some of the most sensational scandals of the past few decades, including the Keating Five, AzScam and the alt-fuels fiasco. One governor was impeached and removed from office while another resigned after being found guilty of bank and wire fraud. A former U.S. congressman from Arizona has been awaiting trial for years on charges including extortion, embezzlement and money laundering.

But to some it seems Arizona has recently opened a new chapter in its raucous political history, as investigations and allegations of corruption and abuse of power have ensnared law-enforcement officials and an unprecedented number of sitting lawmakers. The targets of inquiries have included some of the best-known political names in the state: Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, former Maricopa Attorney Andrew Thomas, Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne and Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu.

On Wednesday, the latest shoe dropped: state Rep. Ben Arredondo, D-Tempe, was indicted on federal charges of bribery, mail fraud, extortion and lying. Federal prosecutors allege that Arredondo, a former Tempe City Council member, took gifts such as pricey professional sports tickets in exchange for taking official action on behalf of a phony company that actually was a front for the FBI.

Arredondo previously was embroiled in yet another controversy surrounding gifts from the Fiesta Bowl to politicians.

Arredondo's arraignment is scheduled for May 30 in U.S. District Court in Phoenix. Lee Stein, Arredondo's attorney, told The Arizona Republic last week that his side views the facts of the case "very differently than the government, but we'll do our talking in court."

While there always have and likely always will be crooked politicians along the lines of former state Rep. Richard Miranda, D-Tolleson, who quit the Legislature this year before pleading guilty to federal felony wire fraud and attempted tax evasion charges, longtime political observers say that the fact that so many law-enforcement officials are under investigation is a new and disturbing trend that hurts the state's image and fuels public cynicism about government.

And they lament what they see as a general lack of leadership and political will to address the situation. They long for the days when Arizona had influential public officials such as the late former U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz., who famously informed President Richard Nixon that he couldn't avoid impeachment over the Watergate scandal and later called on scandal- and gaffe-prone Gov. Evan Mecham to resign.

"The decibel level of what's happened recently is unprecedented in the history of Arizona," said Jack August, a historian who has written several books about the state's politics. "It's almost like we're a renegade state."

For Arizona, that's saying something.

Its legacy of corruption has its roots in the Wild West of pre-statehood days and includes a series of unforgettable political scandals and crimes and a rogues' gallery of scoundrels. The 13th Territorial Legislature misappropriated so much money in the 1880s that it became immortalized in the history books as the "Thieving 13th." In less-distant times, Don Bolles, an Arizona Republic reporter who made his name in the 1960s and 1970s exposing rampant corruption in state government, was murdered in a car-bombing in 1976.

But August and other observers say that the combination of high-stakes investigations now unfolding may eclipse even historic Arizona episodes such as the 1988 impeachment and removal of Mecham, the 1997 criminal trial conviction of Gov. Fife Symington and legislative scandals such as the AzScam bribes-for-votes outrage of the early 1990s and the alternative-fuels scandal.

Each of those developments stunned the public at the time. But Mecham eventually was acquitted in a criminal trial while Symington's conviction was overturned and a 2001 pardon from President Bill Clinton ensured that federal prosecutors would not refile charges against him.

The late former state House Speaker Jeff Groscost, R-Mesa, also saw his political career go up in fumes amid the controversy involving his role in alternative-fuels legislation that gave overly generous refunds and tax rebates to consumers who purchased vehicles that could run on natural gas. The law, which wound up costing the state about $140 million, drove business to an alt-fuels company run by a friend and ally of Groscost's.

Two of Arizona's U.S. senators -- Republican John McCain and Democrat Dennis DeConcini -- got caught up in a national scandal related to their relationships with disgraced developer and financier Charles Keating.

"There is a history here, but this is different," August said. "This is much more high profile."

High-profile cases

In addition to the Arredondo indictment, other high-profile cases involve:

Arpaio, a Republican who is being sued by President Barack Obama's U.S. Department of Justice over accusations of racial-profiling and other civil-rights abuses related to his anti-illegal-immigration operations. A separate federal abuse-of-power investigation also is ongoing.

Thomas and his deputy Lisa Aubuchon, who were ordered disbarred April 10 by an Arizona Supreme Court disciplinary panel for ethical misconduct in connection with prosecutions they launched against other Maricopa County officials and judges. Rachel Alexander, another Thomas aide, had her law license suspended for six months and a day. Aubuchon and Alexander are appealing; Thomas is not.

Horne, a Republican is under investigation by the Justice Department for alleged illegal coordination with an independent third-party group during his 2010 election campaign.

Babeu, a Republican who until May 11 was running for Congress. Babeu and his agency are under investigation by three agencies, including the U.S. Office of Special Counsel that is looking into possible violations of the federal Hatch Act, which makes it illegal for certain government employees to engage in partisan politics. Other investigators are looking into whether Babeu abused his power by threatening a former Mexican boyfriend with deportation and whether the Sheriff's Office destroyed public records.

"Outside of Arizona, we certainly do have this image of instability and a kind of weirdness," said Bruce Merrill, a veteran pollster and professor emeritus at Arizona State University who has followed the state's politics for decades.

Arizona's status as a fast-growing, youngish state -- it turned 100 on Feb. 14 -- also could contribute to the chronic political turmoil and cavalier attitude about it, Merrill said.

"We've never had a very stable population in Arizona, and I think that kind of lends itself to what I call a frontier mentality," he said.

Former Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley told The Arizona Republic that concerns about public corruption are greater today than at any time during his career. As county attorney, Romley oversaw the AzScam sting that resulted in the 1991 indictments of seven state legislators who took bribes from an undercover "wiseguy" police informant who pretended he was pushing for legalized gambling in the state.

After AzScam shook the political landscape, there was strong consensus "that this was not acceptable conduct," Romley said. Today there is a stark attitude of "anything goes" in politics, he said, and seemingly no leaders a la Goldwater who appear inclined to intervene and stop it.

Goldwater's blunt talk with Nixon "took true strength of character, and we need some of our real strong leaders today to say, 'That's it,' " Romley said. "But I don't think we have that today."

Romley cautioned that the subjects of ongoing investigations should be presumed innocent until proven guilty but said he is surprised by some of the people accused of wrongdoing.

"What's shocking to me today is that there are allegations of potential corruption by law enforcement," said Romley, who served as county attorney from 1989 to 2004 and again on an interim basis in 2010. "That to me is a distinguishing difference. Whether it's Thomas, whether it's Horne, whether it's Arpaio, whether it's Babeu -- that to me changes the dynamics dramatically. Because that was always sort of our line of protection. We could always trust law enforcement."

Fiesta Bowl scandal

Critics say the political response to the collegiate Fiesta Bowl scandal was lacking and another sign of a lackadaisical attitude toward political corruption in Arizona.

A 2009 Republic investigation found that Fiesta Bowl employees were reimbursed for campaign contributions, which is illegal. The U.S. Attorney's Office, the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service are involved with the case. It also turned out that numerous state legislators and other political leaders, including Arredondo, indulged in freebies from the bowl. Lawmakers accepted travel and lodging but did not disclose the gifts until after their names came up in the Fiesta Bowl's internal probe. Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery investigated but concluded that Arizona law was insufficient to prosecute them.

After AzScam, lawmakers passed reforms, banning campaign contributions from state lobbyists while the Legislature is in session, requiring lobbyists report gifts to legislators and mandating ethics training for themselves.

Lawmakers concluded this year's legislative session without confronting the Fiesta Bowl abuses, although the controversy did become an issue in the successful 2011 recall campaign against Arizona Senate President Russell Pearce, R-Mesa.

"The Legislature hasn't done any self-correction, as it did with AzScam," August said.

Arredondo is the fourth Arizona legislator to find himself in serious trouble this year. Three state lawmakers exited under clouds during the recently concluded legislative session: Miranda and state Sen. Scott Bundgaard and state Rep. Daniel Patterson, who both resigned after being accused of domestic violence and while facing the prospect of expulsion.

In another pending case, U.S. Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., was indicted on federal corruption charges and did not seek re-election in 2008. He is still awaiting trial.

U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., whose nearly 26-year career in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate has been scandal-free, said he's been around long enough to know that corruption investigations are not a new phenomenon and that the justice system eventually will straighten things out.

"These things go in cycles, and I've been through a lot of governmental investigations in the history of the state of Arizona," Kyl said. "It seems like you have an era where people get caught doing bad things, and they get punished and everybody shapes up for a while. After a while, people come to believe they can get away with stuff, and they start trying it again. It happens that way in Arizona and everywhere else."

David Berman, a senior research fellow at ASU's Morrison Institute for Public Policy, suggested that the state's aggressive law enforcement -- and the investigations it has generated -- is linked to opposition to illegal immigration. Arpaio, Thomas and Babeu all are closely associated with the issue, which drew the national spotlight after Gov. Jan Brewer signed Arizona's controversial immigration-enforcement law in 2010. And Arpaio has long been a magnet for national media attention.

"Unfortunately, you've got a very popular issue that they've been able to ride, and that's anti-illegal immigration," Berman said. "It's made law enforcement a priority, you could say, so that the people who are in that business feel that they've got a blank check, and they've just gone crazy, at least in the opinion of many people."

Given that many Arizonans instinctively distrust the federal government, Berman said, "if the feds get involved, it makes the guys who are doing wrong even more popular."

"It all adds up to a pretty bad image of Arizona," he said. "Kind of a Western shootout mentality."

A psychologist who studies the intersection of power, ethics and corruption pointed to research for another possible explanation for the preponderance of investigations involving Arizona law-enforcement officials.

"People appear to be more willing to commit ethical transgressions if they feel that it is in service of some higher purpose," said Jen Overbeck, a psychologist and assistant professor of management and organization at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business. "I'm not saying that they have good intentions. It's just how people justify to themselves what the rest of us see as some pretty heinous unethical actions."

However, Overbeck doubted that Arizona is much worse than other states in terms of political corruption.

A recent report by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Public Integrity gave Arizona an overall grade of D+ for its susceptibility to corruption and ranked the state 27th in the country. The report flunked Arizona in areas such as lobbyist disclosure and ethics-enforcement.

However, Georgia, Maine, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota, South Carolina, Virginia, and Wyoming got overall grades of F. Another report released this year by the University of Illinois ranked the worst 15 regions for public corruption and found the Chicago and Los Angeles areas leading the pack. Washington, D.C., led the report's top 10 list for federal public corruption convictions per capita. Arizona didn't make either list.

"I have a feeling that everybody just looks at the amount of public corruption that occurs and feels that they have it worse than everywhere else, when there's really just a lot of corruption everywhere," Overbeck said.

Posted by Alex Zener on May 19 2012. Filed under Sports, Top Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Now, much like the Bowl Championship Series, that could be in jeopardy.

With a four-team playoff model on the horizon and deals such as the one between the SEC and Big 12, the talent pool for the remaining bowl games just got a bit more diluted.

Especially if the conference champions of both the SEC and Big 12 are playing in the new four-team playoff model.

That would mean that the next suitable replacement would step up for the new yet unnamed SEC-Big 12 game, leaving the Capital One Bowl forced to go from selecting the second- or third-best team in both leagues to getting the third or fourth pick overall.

"What becomes of the new four-team event is really going to impact what this does to our current positioning in Orlando," Steve Hogan, executive director of Florida Citrus Sports, said Saturday.

As Pete Thamel of The New York Times speculated, there could be three tiers of bowl games. The upper tier would consist of the semifinals and national-championship game; the second tier could be the Rose Bowl and new SEC-Big 12 championship bowl; and then a third tier with the rest; including the Capital One Bowl.

Not to mention that the new bowl deal is a major blow to conferences such as the Big East and ACC, both which appear on shaky ground in the overall picture of college football's new world order.

It appears that the future of the sport is the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12 leaving the rest behind.

That could mean that the Champs Sports Bowl, which is played in Orlando as well and features a tie-in with the Big East and ACC, could also be on shaky ground once the new post-season format takes shape this fall.

Interim Big 12 Commissioner Chuck Neinas hinted that the site of the new SEC-Big 12 game would be opened for bids, and several reports have indicated that the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, the Chick-fil-A Bowl in Atlanta, the Fiesta Bowl in Tempe and the Gator Bowl in Jacksonville could all be interested in hosting the event.

Missing in that equation is the Citrus Bowl in Orlando.

It's not for lack of trying.

Hogan and Florida Citrus Sports will put together a bid for the new SEC-Big 12 championship game, but it's well-documented that the current state of the Citrus Bowl could prevent the city from even getting a sniff.

Which is too bad, considering what the community and its business have to offer: a major airport, plenty of hotels, warm weather and more attractions than you can shake Harry Potter's wand at.

In the end, however, the 75-year-old Citrus Bowl will most than likely be forced to sit on the sidelines and watch as college football morphs into something bigger and greater, leaving the Champs Sports and Capital One bowls behind.

mmurschel@tribune.com

They squandered a lead at Kauffman Stadium for the third straight time Friday night, this one when Miguel Montero’s two-run double in the eighth inning gave the Arizona Diamondbacks a 6-4 win.

Kansas City dropped to 4-16 at home, by far the worst mark in the majors.

“The bottom line: We’ve got to play better,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “We can come up with all the excuses, all the reasons why, but the bottom line is we just need to play better and put our game together at little better. We need to pitch better and hit better at home.

“We’ve been really good on the road,” he said. “We need to find a way to do it at home.”

The Royals are 11-7 away from home, one of the best records in baseball.

It’s when they return to the site of this summer’s All-Star game that everything seems to go haywire. Kansas City lost every game on a 10-game homestand to start the year, and is 0-3 on this trip home, after getting swept by the Baltimore Orioles earlier in the week.

“I can’t explain it,” Royals starter Luis Mendoza said.

The Royals certainly had their chances against Arizona, tying the game in the seventh inning. Kelvin Herrera (0-1) gave up back-to-back singles to Willie Bloomquist and Justin Upton to start the eighth, though, and Montero’s double off Tim Collins made the difference.

Relievers Brad Ziegler (3-1) and Craig Breslow got the game to J.J. Putz, who worked around a two-out walk to Billy Butler in the ninth for his eighth save of the season.

“It was a big win for us,” Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson said.

Chris Young came off the disabled list to add a pair of RBIs for Arizona, which has won consecutive games for the first time since April 29-May 1. Young had been out since hurting his right shoulder running into a wall during a game against Pittsburgh on April 17.

Gibson put him at designated hitter Friday night, allowing him to get some at-bats without having to test his shoulder in the outfield. It was the first time he’d played DH in 776 games — the option isn’t available unless Arizona is playing in an AL ballpark.

“It’s a way different lineup with him in it,” Diamondbacks starter Joe Saunders said. “It gives us more balance, more power. It gives us more opportunities to do different things.”

Arizona struck early on Montero’s run-scoring double in the first, but that’s all they could manage until the sixth. Mendoza retired the next 12 batters he faced.

The Royals jumped on Saunders in the second inning with back-to-back singles by Johnny Giavotella and Mike Moustakas. Mitch Maier grounded back to Saunders, but his throw to second base was high, preventing Arizona from turning a double play and putting runners on the corners.

Humberto Quintero followed with a two-run double, his third straight two-RBI game.

Butler pushed the Royals’ lead to 3-1 with his homer to center leading off the third. It was his seventh of the year, a total he didn’t reach last season until July 22.

Arizona finally solved Mendoza in the sixth inning.

Gerardo Parra, Bloomquist and Upton all singled in the span of four pitches, bringing the Diamondbacks within 3-2. Montero struck out to bring up Young, who picked up the hot hitting he was doing before getting hurt by lacing a two-run double into the left-field corner.

Kansas City answered in the bottom half of the inning.

Irving Falu doubled to right and advanced to third on Butler’s groundout. Gibson drew in the infield to protect the plate, but the move backfired when Alex Gordon slapped a tying single past first baseman Paul Goldschmidt — a ground ball that he normally could have fielded.

Montero made that a moot point with his go-ahead double off Collins in the eighth.

“It’s not out of our mind that we’re better on the road. It’s just something we have to overcome,” Collins said. “Tonight could have been a big win for us, but those last two runs kind of killed us.”

Notes: The Royals left nine on base. ... The Diamondbacks sent OF A.J. Pollock to Triple-A Reno to make room for Young. ... KC LHP Danny Duffy and RHP Blake Wood were examined by Dr. Lewis Yocum on Friday in Tempe, Ariz. Both are scheduled for Tommy John surgery in the next two weeks. ... LHP Everett Teaford will make a spot start for Kansas City on Saturday night against the Diamondbacks’ Wade Miley.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

According to the indictment, Arredondo was a council member in Tempe for 16 years, until July 2010. He was elected to the Arizona House of Representatives in November 2010.

The indictment alleges that from February 2009 to November 2010, Arredondo accepted, agreed to accept and solicited things of value from representatives of a company whose purported business objective was to acquire city-owned property in Tempe for real estate development purposes. The representatives were, in fact, undercover agents with the FBI.

"While many Tempe residents were aware of allegations made against Arredondo, he was strongly supported because of his advocacy for illegal aliens and his opposition to fellow Arizona officials like Rep. Russell Pearce and Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who believe in tough immigration enforcement," a former prosecutor who requested anonymity told the Law Enforcement Examiner Wednesday evening.

In August 2011, there were many who wished Rep. Arredondo to be "recalled" for alleged misconduct in his attempt to bring the Fiesta Bowl from Phoenix to Tempe.

According to the indictment, Arredondo received more than $6,000 worth of tickets to sporting and other special events from FBI from the undercover agents. The tickets included 18 tickets for Arizona Diamondbacks baseball games valued at a total of approximately $2,400, and four tickets to an American League Championship Series baseball game valued at a total of approximately $1,225.

In return for those tickets, Arredondo took and agreed to take action in his capacity as a Tempe city council member and as a member of the Arizona House of Representatives to facilitate the undercover agents’ purchase of city-owned property and development project, the indictment alleges.

The indictment alleges that Arredondo brokered meetings between the undercover agents and other public officials, divulged information regarding the city of Tempe’s bidding process, and attempted to persuade other city officials to approve the purported development project.

The indictment further alleges that Arredondo lied to the FBI about his conduct during an interview in January 2012.

The federal programs bribery charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Each count of honest services mail fraud and attempted extortion carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The false statement charge carries a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

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UPCOMING KOURI MEDIA APPEARANCE:

Tuesday May 22 @ 4 PM (et) - The Chuck Wilder Show - Cable Radio Network (Syndicated)

As more and more book lovers make the shift from printed books to e-reader devices, many authors are noting the trend and testing the waters of the e-book self-publishing industry.

Statistics suggest they are on the right track. In the U.S., 28 percent of adults use an e-reader or tablet to read books, according to Harris Interactive.

By skipping the traditional publishing route and uploading their books directly to Amazon or other digital text platforms, authors quickly discover the promise and pitfalls of indie publishing.

For Mesa author Judith Coopey, e-book self-publishing offered her the chance to widen her market. A retired Mesa Public Schools history teacher, she published her first e-book, "Redfield Farm," using Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing Platform.

"I'm extremely happy with the results," Coopey said. " 'Redfield Farm' has sold more than 25,000 copies as an e-book, and the reviews are good. I never expected this kind of success, so I am sold on Amazon and KDP."

She found the uploading process easy and priced the book at $2.99. She hired a professional editor to proof the book and also paid a designer to create a cover.

"The professional appearance of your book is majorly important if you want the respect of the reading public," Coopey said.

Coopey, who writes historical fiction based in Pennsylvania, makes local appearances in that state to promote the book.

Mesa author Elissa Ambrose, who has published four romances with Harlequin Special Edition, also used Kindle Direct Publishing to self-publish her two most current books.

"I have a collection of literary short stories that I'm very proud of, none of which I'd ever published," Ambrose said. "I used KDP because of its wide outreach. Also, I was obsessed with my new Kindle."

Because Ambrose has an editing background, she did a lot of the editing herself with input from several writers. The cover of her second e-book, "Sex, Lies & Hot Tubs," presented her with the biggest challenge.

"I'd made the mistake of thinking that just because I have a photo editor program, I'm a graphic designer," Ambrose said. "In the end, I had to outsource it."

Ambrose clearly sees both the benefits and pitfalls of e-book self publishing.

"The number one benefit is that I'm at the helm," Ambrose said.

"I have complete control over content as well as pricing. Plus, there's the obvious -- higher royalty rates. The number one downfall, ironically, is the same as the benefit. Without a traditional publisher to oversee the editing, packaging and marketing, I run the risk of my book not selling."

Ambrose promotes her books through her website, social media and blogs. Her most recent book is priced at $2.99, a popular price for indie books. On Amazon, if a book is priced under $2.99, the royalty rate drops from 70 percent to 35 percent.

Gilbert author Collette Scott is the author of four women's fiction novels. She said she set the price of her best-selling novel, "Hannah's Blessing," at 99 cents, to offer readers a sample of her writing, and priced the rest at $2.99.

"I prefer to keep the prices affordable because I know the economy is tough for readers now," she said.

In addition to Kindle Direct, Scott also uses Smashwords to distribute her work to other e-book retailers, including Barnes and Noble, Sony, iBooks and others.

She said she is satisfied with the results: "Hannah's Blessing" reached #1 in Amazon's Free Kindle store, exposing her work to several hundred thousand readers.

In Ambrose's view, e-book self-publishing will continue to grow.

"What's wonderful is that so many voices have the opportunity to be heard," Ambrose said. "The trick is learning how to rise above the noise."

A free farmers market will be conducted from 8a.m. to noon Saturday at Gethsemane Lutheran Church, 1035 E.Guadalupe Road, Tempe.

The market features low-priced fresh produce, homemade jams and jellies and baked goods in an air-conditioned gym.

Submitted by Bob Schuster, a spokesman for Mesa United Way.

May 10 was a red-letter day for Helen's Hope Chest, thanks to a donation from The Arizona Republic's Season for Sharing project and 14 volunteers from Keller Williams Realty who participated in the company's annual RED (Renew, Energize, Donate) Day at the clothing closet for foster children.

The workers took a small mountain of laundry to local laundromats and installed plumbing and electrical for a new commercial washer and dryer purchased with the donation.

"This is a wonderful gift for us," said Emily Strunk, manager of Helen's Hope Chest, which is a project of Mesa United Way and serves more than 1,000 foster children throughout the Southeast Valley. "The new washer and dryer will help us keep up with our laundry demand, which is enormous."

Helen's Hope Chest depends on donations of new and gently used clothing, as well as books, school supplies and toys. Much of the used clothing must be washed before it is displayed on racks, and the facility has had only one household washer and dryer pair until now.

The free-clothing service is intended to help out foster parents, who receive only a small allowance from the state for apparel and supplies.

Keller Williams Associate Leonard Saavedra said about 200 associates from throughout the Southeast Valley took part in the company's RED Day, and more than 78,000 participated in communities across the country.

"The second Thursday of May, all the offices are closed and associates encouraged to participate in volunteer projects that improve the community," Saavedra said as he and fellow associate Scott Graff installed a vent for the new dryer.

"It feels good to help out Helen's Hope Chest because so many kids benefit from this," he said. "There are a lot of people who need help more than ever during these tough times. This is our way to give back to the community."

The Keller Williams volunteers also installed a room air conditioner and an intercom system at Helen's Hope Chest before moving on to other tasks for the Save the Family Foundation and the Centers for Habilitation. Lion's Den Plumbing LLC also donated its services for the washer installation.

Mark Mitchell appears to have won the Tempe mayoral election, according to unofficial election results released Thursday afternoon by the Maricopa County Elections Department.

Mitchell has 11,351 votes compared with Monti's 11,212 votes.

There are three remaining conditional-provisional ballots to be counted.

An automatic re-count would have been triggered if there were 10 or fewer votes separating the candidates.

Check back with azcentral.com for updates.

Tammi Smith, the woman who wanted to adopt long-missing Baby Gabriel, was found guilty Thursday of charges connected to her role in Gabriel's December 2009 disappearance.

The jury at midday Thursday returned with the guilty verdict on charges of conspiracy to commit custodial interference and forgery.

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Coverage of the Baby Gabriel case | Photos
Timeline of events in the Baby Gabriel case

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Following announcement of Thursday's verdict, the jury considered and found aggravators that will be considered at Smith's sentencing: that the crimes caused emotional harm and that an accomplice was involved.

Smith, 40, was accused of forging her cousin's name on a document challenging whether Logan McQueary, 27, was Gabriel's father, and of conspiring with the baby's mother to deprive McQueary of his paternal rights.

The baby's mother, Elizabeth Johnson, remains jailed without bond on kidnapping, child abuse and custodial interference charges stemming from Gabriel's disappearance more than two years ago. Johnson faces trial in September.

In December 2009, Johnson fled to San Antonio with her son, Gabriel, after McQueary moved out of their Tempe trailer. As she fled, she was in constant contact with Smith, who wanted to adopt the child, according to trial testimony.

On Dec. 27, 2009, the last day Gabriel was seen alive, Smith and Johnson traded emails about potential criminal charges.

"I can't come back," Johnson texted Smith, according to Smith's testimony. "I will go to jail. I would rather die. Plus you can be charged with aiding and abetting."

Later that day, Johnson texted and phoned the baby's father, saying she had smothered their son and thrown his body in the trash because the father talked to other girls. She later recanted.

Smith had tried various ways to add another child to her family before pinning hopes on Gabriel.

She explored adopting children from the foster system and from China, she offered women up to $900 a month to be surrogate mothers, and she walked up to pregnant women and asked about adopting their babies, according to testimony.

Smith had tried artificially inseminating a woman with her husband's sperm and approached a woman at a fast food restaurant and offered to adopt her unborn child, according to testimony.

But Smith, a born-again Christian who owns a hydro-colonic company, said her prayers seemed to be answered in 2009.

It was then, at an Indianapolis airport, that she first laid eyes on blond-haired, blue-eyed Gabriel, then two months old, and his slender, youthful mother, Elizabeth Johnson, 25.

"Maybe God was sending us this baby," Smith testified.

But the adoption process was difficult. Yes, Johnson wanted the Smiths to raise Gabriel, but she changed her mind, going "back and forth, back and forth," Smith testified.

The baby's father, Logan McQueary, was firm right away: He wanted to raise his son and would not relinquish his rights.

So began Smith's plots to wear McQueary down, according to testimony and court records. They included:

Questioning his paternity. To do this, Smith forged the name of her cousin, Craig Cherry, on an official document as a possible "real" father of Gabriel.

Urging Johnson to go to woman's shelter and claim McQueary beat her.

Going to a jurisdiction where it was harder for fathers to establish rights. This had worked for Tammi and Jack Smith when they adopted Hannah, the first illegitimate child of Jack's daughter, whom they adopted in Tennessee, according to testimony.

Telling McQueary that Johnson, who had fled with Gabriel to San Antonio, would return with the baby if he signed over his rights to the Smiths.

Telling the custody-case judge that Johnson would only return with Gabriel if the Smiths had legal rights to the child.

Trying to adopt Elizabeth.

Complaining to a judge every time McQueary was late with any payment or didn't return Gabriel on time to his mother.

Smith testified that in the end she was only trying to get Johnson to return with Gabriel because she had "bonded" with McQueary and felt his pain.