四 川 铁 FourRiverIron

Fulton Brock's future in limbo

Fulton Brock's future in limbo

Unclear if supervisor will seek re-election amid family sex scandal

by Yvonne Wingett Sanchez - Jul. 24, 2011 12:00 AM

The Arizona Republic

Maricopa County Supervisor Fulton Brock, who for years easily won re-election to his East Valley district, faces an uncertain political future in the wake of a sex scandal that recently rocked his family.

The four-term Republican, who touted his Mormon faith and family values in past elections, now finds his family - and his political career - in tatters as a result of his wife's conviction on molestation charges and his daughter's pending sentencing for abusing the same victim.

As the Aug. 28, 2012, primary looms, candidates are busying themselves gathering petition signatures to qualify for the ballot and raising money to finance their campaigns. But a big question mark hovers next to Brock's name.

Brock's four colleagues on the Board of Supervisors have been talking about their candidacies for months. Some have already declared intention to run in filings with the county Elections Department. Others are clearly in campaign mode and have raked in thousands of dollars from political fundraisers.

Yet Brock, once thought to be a shoo-in for re-election, no longer talks publicly about his political future. Since the family scandal erupted last fall, he has hidden from the news media and deflected questions.

Asked recently about Brock's political future, his chief of staff notably referred questions to a county spokeswoman instead of a campaign worker. Cari Gerchick said it was "too early to discuss (the campaign) at this time."

Asked if Brock was gathering signatures to appear on the 2012 primary ballot, Gerchick said he was not, although his chief of staff said Brock has gathered about half the required signatures. Nor is Brock raising money, Gerchick said.

Jason Rose, a public-relations representative hired by Brock, was noncommittal about his client's intentions, adding, "Family first, then politics."

"That tells you that he probably doesn't want to run or that he thinks he could have a tough time if he ran," said David Berman, research fellow at Arizona State University's Morrison Institute for Public Policy. "He's been ducking the media, which is not a good thing to do if you're going to run. Maybe he's thinking about regrouping and running.

"He was a pretty sympathetic guy when it first broke, but then as it turned out, he was aware far sooner (of his wife's activities) than he admitted he was. Sometimes politicians can reinvent themselves - they do it all the time - but if it's something that's going to haunt him, it may be more difficult for him." Critical policy decisions

Brock is one of five powerful members of the Board of Supervisors. For the past 15 years, he has helped shape critical policy decisions on a broad range of issues including county land use, spending oversight of the Sheriff's Office and health care for jail inmates.

Less decisive than his colleagues, Brock often acted as a swing vote in recent years, particularly on decisions involving the Sheriff's Office and County Attorney's Office. His departure from the board would create a notable void, and his replacement could be influential in future decisions on taxation, legislation and budgetary matters.

The uncertainty over Brock's political future is a direct result of his family's disarray.

Brock's wife, Susan, is serving a 13-year prison sentence for sexually molesting a teen. The molestation went on for three years, starting when the boy was 14. Police said she gave the boy, a family friend who attended her church, lavish gifts for two years before molesting him.

Brock's daughter Rachel, 22, has pleaded guilty to abusing the same teen and is awaiting sentencing on two counts of child abuse with sexual motivation.

When his wife was arrested last October, Fulton Brock denied knowledge of her crimes, saying he was shocked and surprised. Weeks later, he announced he had filed for divorce.

Yet the pair appear to have remained close. Brock visited his wife frequently in jail and almost had his visitation privileges revoked after a sheriff's official learned he was delivering fast food to his wife during those visits. Other inmates complained of the Brocks' physical contact during those jail visits.

Recordings of their jail conversations showed the pair discussed the possibility of conjugal visits and a gubernatorial pardon to absolve Susan of penalties for her crime.

Implications for career

In the weeks after Susan Brock's arrest, the implications for Fulton Brock's political career were unclear. Initially, he was perceived as a sympathetic husband betrayed by his wife, political observers and crisis-communications experts said.

Brock's Board of Supervisors colleagues largely stuck by him, saying he should not be held accountable for his wife's misdeeds. Letters of support from friends, county staff, constituents and fellow church members rolled into his county e-mail, offering prayers and compassion and encouraging him to hold tightly to his faith.

Asked at that point if he was running for re-election, Brock said he was and pointed to documents declaring his intentions. But he acknowledged he was regrouping, trying to figure out how to raise money for his campaign amid his family's troubles.

Then, police reports began to contradict Brock's repeated statements that he didn't know the gravity of his wife's actions until days after her arrest.

Police reports showed that he was present in October 2009 when the victim's father directly asked Susan if she were having sexual relations with his son. More than a month before Susan's arrest, the supervisor asked the county's then-top prosecutor, Rick Romley, for a list of criminal-defense attorneys who specialize in cases involving sexual abuse of minors.

According to police reports, Brock was aware that his wife was spending thousands of dollars on gifts for the boy. Two weeks before Susan's arrest, police said, a Mormon bishop informed Brock that his wife had admitted to masturbating the boy twice.

Police also have asserted that handwriting tests showed Fulton Brock wrote a note for Susan in the days before her arrest suggesting ways to keep her out of prison and keep their family together. Included in those plans, a prosecutor said, was a strategy to accuse the victim of sexually assaulting Susan and Rachel Brock and claim he was extorting money.

Fulton Brock has often refused to address questions about his knowledge. But at various points, he also has called the police and prosecutorial reports inaccurate. He also told county staff that Romley was lying about having been approached for a referral for legal counsel.

As the revelations unfolded, Supervisor Andy Kunasek and others began to have reservations about Brock's political future.

"I'm not yet ready to say, 'Fulton, you've got to step down,' in the context of what a lot of other people are saying about him needing to step down," Kunasek said. "I know people are asking for it, but I'm not there yet. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't concerned as an elected official, as a father, as a husband. It's caused everybody to have some real hard thoughts about what he should do now, and what was the right thing for him to do - then, and now." Constituents wary

Brock's public response to his family's crisis has also caused concern to some constituents.

Queen Creek resident Lane Nesper, 62, called the supervisor a "disgrace" and asked him to resign in an April e-mail. Later, Nesper said in an interview that he was disappointed the supervisor appeared to have been "less than truthful" about knowledge of his wife's actions. Nesper said he will not vote for the supervisor should he choose to run again.

"When you're elected, it is assumed that you're going to do well for the community," said Nesper. "And I believe he has bald-face lied to his constituents about his wife and about the fact that he didn't know anything about it. If you can't tell the truth, then how can we trust you? It'd be better for his wife, better for his church, better for the county, better for his family if he stepped down."

Campaign filings with the county Elections Department still list his wife as Fulton Brock's campaign treasurer.

Wayne Howard, Brock's longtime friend and political adviser, said Brock has not yet made a decision about seeking re-election.

"Fulton needs to finish up his ordeal, and after he's had a chance to have a little more healing with his family, then he needs to make up his mind," Howard said. "I don't think he should be making any major career decisions until then. He does and will continue to make an excellent supervisor, and I think he should run."

Voters have shown they can forgive candidates whose spouses make major mistakes. The key to retaining voter confidence, experts say, is maintaining distance from the problem.

"People can kind of empathize with someone with a family member who commits a felony, or something like this, a major scandal," Tucson pollster Margaret Kenski said. "But if it looks like he's not distancing himself from her or is trying to interfere with the course of justice, then that could become problematic. And I think where it becomes a little bit harder in the public mind to take him at his word that he was truthful is that it looks like he was trying to cover up his own knowledge. That's a real vulnerability."

Republic reporter Laurie Merrill contributed to this article.

Fulton and Susan Brock divorce finalized

Fulton and Susan Brock divorce finalized

by Laurie Merrill - Jul. 27, 2011 05:10 PM

The Arizona Republic

Just weeks after Fulton Brock complained in court papers that Susan Brock had spent tens of thousands of dollars on the Chandler teen she molested, they signed a consent decree and are officially divorced.

"The marriage of the parties is dissolved and the parties are restored to the status of single persons," wrote Robert Miles, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge.

The divorce, filed by Brock in November after Susan's arrest on child abuse charges, is dated July 14.

Susan Brock, 49, is serving a 13-year sentence for molesting a family friend for three years starting when he was 14. She was accused of grooming him since he was 12, giving him extravagant gifts that included an arsenal of guns, iPhones and the latest video equipment.

The Brocks' middle child, Rachel, has pleaded guilty in connection with molesting the same teen over a three year period. Her sentencing, originally scheduled for Aug. 17, has been postponed.

The decree holds Susan "solely responsible for payment of any restitution or other claims" stemming from the molestation case.

Fulton, 59, was awarded the majority of assets and custody of the youngest child, 15. He declined to comment on the divorce.

He was awarded the family home at 4465 S. Virgnia Way, Chandler, valued at $500,000; half the interest in a home in which Susan's mother residence at 402 E. Mead Dr., Chandler, valued at $250,000; a residence at 4201 S. Newport Dr., Chandler, valued at $400,000; and a Carlsbad, Calif., time share.

Susan's mother has the other half interest in the Mead Drive home.

Fulton now possesses the 2003 Honda, 2007 Honda and 2005 Lexus SUV. He also assumes two Visa card debts.

Fulton and Susan keep their own retirement accounts, though Brock said in court papers that Susan drained hers to lavish gifts on the victim.

In his last court filing, Fulton said the victim's family will seek damages soon.

Susan Brock spent $4,000 at Kay Jewelers, presumably for a diamond ring that prosecutors say she gave the victim to give his teenage girlfriend. She withdrew an estimated $10,000 on a line of credit she opened without Brock's knowledge, $5,000 in other credit card debts, $52,000 from her retirement and $40,000 she spent on legal fees, the papers say.

Susan Brock gave the victim several iPods and iPhones, a special edition x-box 360 and numerous games, underwear, jeans, t-shirts, paintball supplies and guns.

Susan Brock purchased many items online and had them sent to her mother's house because otherwise "Fulton would get mad," the victim told police.

Fulton Brock filed for divorce Nov. 9, shortly after his wife's October arrest on child abuse charges.

"I serve the county - and I intend to stay" Fulton Brock - Reminds me of when Richard Nixon said "I am not a crook"

Source

I serve the county - and I intend to stay

by Fulton Brock - Jul. 29, 2011 09:14 PM

I am responding to Wednesday's editorial "Supervisor needs to exit spotlight."

As you know, I cannot comment upon my family's legal matters until the ongoing case against my daughter has concluded. [That's BS! You can comment on anything you want to! You are just refusing to make a comment!] However, I am compelled to respond to the false statement that I am withdrawn, uncommunicative and "scarcely involved" in the important policy decisions before the Board of Supervisors. That is simply not true. Not even close.

The past several months have seen positive changes within Maricopa County as the sheriff, county attorney and Board of Supervisors work to put aside past differences and cooperate with one another to serve our common constituency. [Give me a break! The only positive change at the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office is that some of Sheriff Joe's top goons were fired. And that wasn't a result of the Maricopa County Supervisors]

It has been an unusually active year, and I have been anything but withdrawn. As your own paper has noted, I am very often the swing vote on issues. So I can hardly be described as uninvolved. In fact, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has met 81 times this year, and I might have missed a few. [Please tell us! How many meeting did you miss?] I have been as active in board matters as any of my colleagues.

Less than a week ago, The Republic ran a story on a complex legal and financial matter with the county attorney. A photo accompanied the story and there I was, with board Chairman Andy Kunasek, participating in a seven-hour marathon discussion of the issue. That same week, your paper noted my involvement in detailed discussions with the town of Gilbert over the future of two libraries there.

Over the past several months, I have been active and fully involved in multiple community projects from organizing cleanups to supporting educational and literacy programs in our communities. I am the board's most vocal supporter of our county's emerging status as a globally recognized center of genetic research and have actively used my position on the Greater Phoenix Economic Council to support, promote and expand our efforts to attract other leading-edge technologies and employers to our county.

Don't confuse politics with public service. Raising money, campaigning for re-election and collecting nominating petitions have little to do with my official duties. Electioneering and political fundraising should not be the standard by which I am measured. [Why not? Electioneering and political fundraising are usually thinly veiled bribes? ] There is a tremendous difference between campaigning for office and holding office as well as between serving the public and asking for their money.

I may not have made a final decision on whether I will seek re-election, but I have been very clear about the remainder of my term. I was elected by the people of the county. I am serving the people of the county. [What BS! You are serving yourself, not the public!] And I intend to stay.

Fulton Brock is a Chandler resident and a member of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.

Plea deal for Chandler woman in Brock case

Plea deal for Chandler woman in Brock case

Posted: Wednesday, August 24, 2011 2:46 pm | Updated: 1:12 am, Thu Aug 25, 2011.

Plea deal for Chandler woman in Brock case Associated Press

A Chandler woman accused of destroying evidence in a high-profile sexual abuse case has entered a plea deal.

Christian Hart Weems pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of computer tampering.

Prosecutors say Weems faces up to three years of supervised probation when she sentenced Oct. 7.

Weems is a friend of Susan Brock, who's serving 13 years in prison for molesting a teenage boy over a three-year period.

Weems was accused of destroying and altering evidence in the personal e-mail account of the boy Brock was charged with molesting.

Brock is the ex-wife of a Maricopa County supervisor.

The 37-year-old Weems previously pleaded not guilty to the charges and has been out on bond.

In exchange for her plea, the other charge against Weems was dismissed.

Fulton Brock lies about tax increase he voted for

Fulton Brock spins the BS and tries to convince us that him and the other tyrants on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors didn't raise our taxes.

In an article in the Arizona Republic on Aug 16, 2011 Michelle Ye Hee Lee reported that Maricopa County raised the property tax rates by 18 percent.

In the article that follows, which is from the East Valley Tribune on Aug 24, Fulton Brock spins a lie that him and his fellow tyrants on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors didn't raise our taxes.

That is 100 percent BS. If Fulton Brock had not voted to raise our taxes, the amount of property taxes people pay in Maricopa County would have dropped even more.

Source

Setting the record straight on Maricopa County taxes

Posted: Wednesday, August 24, 2011 5:00 pm

By Fulton Brock, guest commentary

Recent news coverage of the county levy left many with the misleading impression that the Maricopa Board of Supervisors increased property taxes across the county. While individual situations may vary, the fact is that taxes actually fell - by almost $22 million. [Yes the total amount of taxes fell, but the Maricopa County Superivisors still raised the tax rate. The total amount of taxes would have fell even more if the Supervisors had not raised the tax rate]

The Board of Supervisors has worked hard to be responsible with both taxes and spending. Our goal has been to reduce or keep county taxes flat on the average homeowner. We do this is by adjusting the tax rate. When home values are rising we reduce the tax rate. Conversely, the rate is increased when home values fall. [That is probably 100 percent BS. Like most politicians the Maricopa County Supervisors only know one word and that is TAX!]

This process keeps the county controlled portion of the property tax bill steady, resulting in little, if any, change in county taxes paid by the average homeowner.

I say "county taxes" because it is important to note that Maricopa County controls only 10 percent to 15 percent of the property tax bill. [Yea, but the Supervisors still raised the taxes on the 10 to 15 percent of the tax they control]

The rest is controlled by others, such as cities and towns, school districts and numerous special taxing districts that deliver services ranging from irrigation to fire protection to health care.

Others may have raised taxes, but on the portion of the tax bill we control, we've kept taxes as low as possible. In 12 of the past 14 years we've cut or maintained the tax rate. [Which means in 1 out of every 7 years they have RAISED taxes]

The rate today is nearly 11 percent lower than when I first took office and consequently we have among the lowest property taxes of any major metropolitan area in the West.

Like the average household, Maricopa County balances its budget by controlling spending. Since 2008, we have reduced spending by almost $120 million and eliminated 2,000 positions.

On top of that, we have been forced to transfer another $175 million to the state to help balance its budget. That is an astronomical amount of money that represents a direct pass-through of county resources to the state and translates into 10 cents of the county's $1.26 rate.

Because Maricopa County collects all of the taxes imposed upon property within our borders, we are an easy target of taxpayer anger and frustration. If we really did raise taxes in the fashion implied, we would be deserving of criticism.

Thankfully, that was not the case.

• Fulton Brock has been a member of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors since 1997. Reach him at (602) 506-1776.

Fulton Brock covers up the sex crimes of his wife?

Brocked Up: Supervisor Fulton Brock Attempted to Cover Up the Sexual Liaisons Between His Wife, Daughter and a Teenage Boy

Under the Friday-night lights of a suburban high school football game, Chandler's Perry Pumas beat the Marcos DeNiza Padres 23-17, despite getting outscored 10-0 in the second half.

Paul Quinn, a 6-foot-1, 185-pound Perry junior, dressed for the game but didn't get in that night. Regardless, his girlfriend and Susan Brock, a devoutly Mormon mother of three and wife of Maricopa County Supervisor Fulton Brock, watched him from the stands.

Susan Brock had been forbidden to see Paul by leaders of her Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, her husband, and the boy's parents, Craig and Laura Quinn, more than a year before the October 8, 2010, victory. But this didn't stop the two from secret meetings or stop Brock from showering the boy with gifts.

One of the many presents Brock bought for him was an iPod Touch, which she had with her that night and entrusted to Paul's girlfriend to give to the boy after the game.

Quinn, now 18, and his girlfriend had trust issues, which led to so many arguments that the girl's parents told their daughter she was no longer allowed to see Quinn. Suspicious of her forbidden love interest, Quinn's girlfriend cracked the password on the iPod and did some snooping before giving it to him.

What she discovered confirmed what several people — including the boy's parents, his own LDS church, and Supervisor Brock — suspected for more than a year: 48-year-old Susan Brock and 17-year-old Paul Quinn were having a sexual relationship.

In text messages discovered on Paul's iPod Touch, Brock — using the alias "Timmy Turner" — and the boy had a graphic conversation about sex she'd had with her county supervisor husband while the two were on a trip to New York about a month earlier. At one point, Quinn asked Susan whether Fulton Brock's penis was bigger than his.

"You are small — half his size on a good day," Susan Brock (as "Timmy Turner") joked, according to cell-phone records obtained by police. "Maybe it will grow with gravity."

The boy then jokingly asked whether his penis was the size of a 6-year-old's, to which Brock replied, "Pretty much, but it's all right. You're handsome and kind of nice to look at."

Paul Quinn later would tell police that he'd been sexually abused by Brock on at least 30 occasions.

As if the story of a devoutly Mormon wife of a powerful county official molesting a teenage boy wasn't fantastic enough, it was revealed that the Brocks' adult daughter, Rachel, had a sexual relationship with the same boy, starting when Quinn was 13. Rachel Brock, at the time, was 18.

But sexual abuse is only part of this story.

This is also a story about the great lengths to which Fulton Brock went to keep law enforcement from building a case against his wife.

It's a story about how the county supervisor abused his powerful position within the community to obtain favors from Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio to ensure that certain conversations he'd had with his jailed wife as she prepared for a potential trial were not recorded by detention officers.

It's a story about a boy who, psychologists say, learned from his abuser how to manipulate people and took full advantage of his unfortunate situation.

It's a story about how the sexual abuse of a boy could have been stopped a year earlier if his church, his school, his abuser's county supervisor husband, and his own parents had alerted police when suspicion first arose that Susan Brock was abusing him.

Susan Brock pleaded guilty in January to three counts of attempted sexual conduct with a minor, a far cry from the 15 felony counts on which she initially was indicted. She was sentenced to 13 years in prison for abusing the boy over a span of three years.

Rachel Brock originally was charged with seven counts of sexual conduct with a minor and one count of furnishing obscene materials to a minor. She pleaded guilty in June to two counts of child abuse with sexual motivation. She faces up to a year in county jail and 10 years of probation at her sentencing, scheduled for October 20.

Meanwhile, news that Quinn had been abused by Susan Brock hit Perry High School within hours of her October 26, 2010, arrest.

The person who revealed the situation was Quinn's best friend and football teammate, Jared Neff, who also benefited from Susan Brock's desire to keep the sexual relationship she was having with Quinn quiet.

"Everyone found out pretty much the day [the arrest] happened," another classmate and football teammate of Quinn's (who wished to not be identified because Quinn's liaison with Brock has become a "sketchy situation" at the school) tells New Times. "We knew that it was a kid at our school, and then one of his friends told people it was him.

"Everyone on the football team joked around about it and would say stuff like, 'Hear you like older women.' [Paul] always denied it."

"I went up to him and asked him about it, and he said no, it wasn't him, but everybody knew. You could just tell. After it happened, he walked around all depressed — like he was the saddest kid on Earth. Then, one day, he just disappeared."

Following Susan Brock's arrest, Quinn continued to attend Perry High School for more than a month. According to court documents obtained by New Times, he then was sent to a school out of state, where he is undergoing therapy to help put what happened behind him.

Marci Hamilton is the Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law at Yeshiva University in New York City. She has written extensively about sexual abuse in religious institutions, including the book Justice Denied: What America Must Do to Protect Its Children. She served as constitutional and federal law counsel in many prominent sex-abuse cases involving clergy in state and federal courts, and has testified before state legislatures regarding elimination of statutes of limitations for childhood sex abuse.

After familiarizing herself with the case at the request of New Times, Hamilton concludes, "Every adult in this story failed the child because they didn't go to police."

Rather, they went to their church.

None of the principals in this story agreed to speak on the record with New Times. Multiple attempts to obtain comment from Fulton Brock, Susan Brock, the Quinn family, and LDS officials were ignored or declined. What is described here is derived from police reports, court documents, transcripts of phone conversations between Fulton and Susan Brock, accounts of those close to the case, and expert opinion.

The Brock and Quinn families met in 2003 through their respective LDS churches. Susan Brock and Laura Quinn were considered best friends. In 2004, Rachel Brock even went to her sophomore prom with Paul Quinn's older brother — who is her age and was thought by her mother to be a potential romantic match for her.

Paul's brother, himself a devout Mormon who completed a two-year mission with the church, ended the relationship with Rachel, saying the two "didn't have the same values."

Paul's older brother, it appears, caught the eye of Rachel's mother, Susan, too.

Paul's brother later told police how weird he thought it was that Susan Brock continually asked him about his love life under the guise of wanting to set him up with her daughter, and the Quinns later told police they suspected early on that Susan had a "fascination" with their older son. She had offered to buy him an iPhone on several occasions before he went on his mission. She had made similar offers when she took him to dinner upon his return. He declined every time.

Luring Paul, however, was easier, the Quinns say, and they believe Brock started "grooming" him when he was as young as 11 by buying him things they wouldn't — including an iPhone when he was in sixth grade.

In fact, over the course of the relationship, Brock bought Quinn whatever his heart desired, including several iPods and iPhones, a special edition Xbox 360 and numerous games, underwear, jeans, T-shirts, a sniper rifle, two assault rifles, an M-1 carbine, a bolt-action rifle, a double-barreled sawed-off shotgun, a pistol, and paintball supplies.

Following at least 20 of the sexual encounters Brock had with the boy, she paid him $100. She often would bring whatever he and Neff wanted for lunch at school. Even after Quinn's parents told the school — more than a year before Brock's arrest — not to allow the middle-aged woman near their son.

"Every day, [Paul] and Jared had food from different places," Quinn's anonymous football teammate tells New Times. "Taco Bell, Jack in the Box — and we always wondered where they got it."

Despite instructions to Quinn's school from his parents to not allow Brock near their son, she frequently visited the boy there. Police were never called when she showed up at the school, as Quinn's parents had instructed.

Perry Principal Dan Serrano would not discuss the Brock case with New Times, citing the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act as the reason. However, he says, "I strongly deny that I or anyone at Perry High School had any knowledge of any criminal activity."

Susan and Rachel apparently weren't the only Brock women enamored of Paul Quinn. Neff described a time when Quinn brought the Brock's youngest daughter, Beth Anne — the only member of the Brock family who's the same age as Quinn — to his house when the three were in sixth or seventh grade.

Despite Beth Anne's apparent friendship with Quinn, it was her older sister who was the first Brock with whom he had a sexual relationship.

During a July 2007 family trip to California, Rachel Brock and Quinn were under a blanket together on the beach. Quinn felt Rachel's breasts as she gave him a "hand job," Quinn told Chandler police.

About a month later, Rachel performed oral sex on Quinn as the two sat in Rachel's car as it was parked in front of the home of her county supervisor father.

That fall, Rachel went to college at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, but the relationship with Quinn didn't end — when Rachel returned home, she and Quinn had similar sexual trysts.

Quinn's girlfriend, meanwhile, always found it weird that a "college girl" would be interested in a high school freshman, adding to her suspicions about her wayward boyfriend (in addition to the text messages between Quinn and Susan Brock, Quinn's girlfriend found naked pictures of other female classmates on his phone).

Neff knew of Quinn's sexual relationship with Rachel Brock. Quinn showed him pictures he had saved on his phone of Rachel naked that she had sent him, along with videos of her masturbating. Neff says Quinn told him that the two had actual intercourse at least twice, the last time in July 2010, just a few months before Susan Brock's arrest and nearly three years after Quinn was first abused by both Susan and Rachel Brock.

Neff, who briefly dated Beth Anne Brock, told police he always suspected Susan was interested in Quinn sexually but didn't know of any abuse until it came out in the media.

About a year and a half before Susan Brock was arrested, Neff says he was playing cards with Paul, Susan, and Rachel, when Susan suggested that the four play strip poker because she had recently lost a lot of weight. There is nothing in investigation records to suggest that the game actually occurred.

At the time of the strip-poker suggestion, Quinn already had been sexually active with both Susan and Rachel for about two years.

Susan Brock began her sexual encounters with Quinn in October 2007, about a month after Rachel went away to college.

Quinn and Susan Brock were alone in her Lexus SUV as it was parked in a partially developed neighborhood near the Chandler airport that month. Susan crawled over the seat, disrobed the boy, and grabbed his penis — the first of about 30 hand jobs Brock would give Quinn over the course of about three years.

On most of those occasions, Susan Brock would massage the boy's penis with vibrating sex toys. In one instance, as the two again were parked by the airport, Brock removed her Mormon temple garments so Quinn could ejaculate on her breasts.

"I don't know, it was always just the same thing," Quinn later told police. "Rarely would we do it at her house, and whenever we did, it would be [while] on the computer or her iPhone looking at pornography."

As Quinn raked in expensive gifts and cash from Brock, the most valuable service Brock provided the boy was the means to continue his relationship with his girlfriend after her parents forbade their relationship.

One of the many purchases Susan Brock made for him was a $4,000 diamond ring from Kay Jewelers that, prosecutor Jason Holmberg says, became a gift for Quinn to give to his girlfriend.

In addition to the ring, Brock would arrange ways for Quinn to have sex with the girl after the girl's parents had forbidden the two from seeing each other.

Brock arranged for the two to have sex on several occasions, made suggestions about which sexual positions they should try, and even provided them with a "sex kit" that included condoms, sexual lubricants, and sex toys.

In one instance, Brock drove the two to a mall parking lot so they could have sex in her car. Brock went inside to shop while Quinn and his girlfriend had sex, with the understanding that they would text-message Brock when they were done and ready to leave.

Looking back, Quinn's girlfriend tells police, she thought there were times Brock listened as she and Quinn had sex. There were occasions, she says, when Brock arranged for her and Quinn to have sex at Brock's mother's house, where Fulton Brock's wife would "linger."

In one case, Quinn literally had to push Brock out the door so he could have sex with his girlfriend.

Quinn's girlfriend said she should have known her boyfriend and the county supervisor's wife were having a sexual relationship. She said she recalls times when Quinn was in the backseat of Brock's car as she was driving and would put his feet on the headrest so Brock could rub them. She told police Brock would sometimes talk to Quinn in a "seductive-sounding voice."

In retrospect, the girl says, Quinn was confused and probably "felt stuck" in the relationship with Brock.

In an e-mail Quinn wrote to his girlfriend's mother following the discovery that he was having a sexual relationship with Susan Brock, he writes, "[It's] obvious you have uncovered my darkest secret that I have been trying to forget about for a very long time, but I really need you right now. I can't share this with anyone besides you all . . . This is very unfair. I wasn't able to see [your daughter] unless I played by [Susan Brock's] rules, and I was afraid [your daughter] would dump me if I didn't see [her]. I am begging you."

However, by the time Quinn had written the e-mail, he had "mastered the art of manipulation, deceit, and denial, which were taught to him by Susan Brock," according to Brock's pre-sentencing report.

Before he ever was sexually abused by Susan and Rachel Brock, and about the time adolescence started to kick in, Paul Quinn was having what his parents would later describe as "mental meltdowns."

At the time, they figured the "meltdowns" were the result of the troubled relationship between Quinn and his girlfriend.

Over the course of about five years — beginning before the sexual liaisons started — the Quinns took Paul to several counselors. The Quinns never brought to the attention of Paul's psychologists the possibility that he was getting sexually abused by Susan Brock, despite their bringing those very concerns to leaders in their church more than a year before Brock's arrest.

A psychologist who worked with Quinn in the months before Brock's arrest told Chandler Detective Chris Perez that Quinn had "learned to manipulate."

In police reports and transcripts of conversations with his jailed wife, County Supervisor Brock repeatedly refers to Quinn as "that little Dorian Gray," a reference to the young, hedonistic pleasure-seeker with loose morals whose beauty infatuates an older man in the Oscar Wilde novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Toward the end of their affair, Susan Brock described herself as Quinn's "personal slave," and the Quinns acknowledged that they had "no doubt their son began manipulating Ms. Brock."

After it was revealed that Quinn and Brock had been sexually involved, Brock threatened to kill herself on several occasions. She promised her young victim that she would change her will and give Quinn $300,000 after her death so he could "go to college and become the best lawyer ever."

Days later, during a call recorded by the Chandler Police Department, Brock told Quinn she'd "taken too many pills and was starting to scare herself."

Quinn then asked whether she yet had changed her will to ensure that he would get the money.

When Fulton Brock launched his 2008 campaign for county supervisor, he enlisted the Quinn family to help.

According to elections records, three members of the Quinn family were paid $8,730 by "Friends of Fulton Brock" during the 2008 campaign for doing services such as putting up campaign signs and collecting signatures.

Paul, records show, was paid $1,660 for setting up, repairing, and removing campaign signs. Laura Quinn was paid $3,422 for collecting signatures. These types of paid campaign jobs often are reserved for the closest friends and family of a candidate.

To be sure, the Quinns and the Brocks were very close — their kids went to school together, they were involved in similar social activities, and they often shared dinners and holidays.

By 2009, though, the two families were at odds over the amount of time Susan was spending with Paul. The Quinns disapproved of all the expensive items Susan had bought for their son and felt she was undermining their authority as parents by showering him with the gifts.

In August 2009, nearly two years after she'd become sexually active with Paul, Susan Brock and Laura Quinn got into an argument after Paul was forbidden from seeing his girlfriend. Brock, also a friend of Paul's girlfriend's mother, told Laura Quinn that she could not be friends with both her and her son — and that her loyalty was to Paul.

By this point, the Quinns' concerns over Brock's fascination with their son had been developing for quite a while. Laura told Brock to stay away from Paul, but Brock refused — she said Laura would have to "put her in jail" before she would stay away from Paul.

The Quinns told Brock to stop giving cell phones to Paul, another request the county supervisor's wife refused. The Quinns would find a cell phone Paul had received from Susan, and they would return it to the Brocks — often only to find it back in Paul's possession soon thereafter.

In October 2009, Paul's father, Craig, talked to a friend who was a former Chandler police officer. Craig explained the situation between his son and Susan Brock, and the ex-cop suggested that Brock might be sexually abusing Paul.

Rather than take such a concern to police, the Quinns turned to their church.

The Quinns called a meeting with their LDS stake president, Mitch Jones, and the Brocks to discuss their suspicions about Susan's interference in their son's life, and the possibility that she was sexually abusing Paul.

Craig Quinn specifically asked Susan — with her county supervisor husband in the room — whether she was having a sexual relationship with Paul. She denied it, but everyone in the room that day knew this was what the parents feared. Yet nobody there bothered to investigate further, much less call police.

The abuse continued for another year before police caught wind of the suspicion that a teenage boy and a 48-year-old woman were having sex.

According to clergy sex-abuse expert Marci Hamilton, not alerting authorities about suspected abuse is status quo for the Mormon Church.

"This, unfortunately, is very typical behavior in the Latter-day Saints church," she says. "They will take calls about abuse either to a stake president or to a bishop, and it doesn't get reported."

Under LDS protocol, Hamilton says, it's up to the stake president to decide whether to further investigate suspicions of sexual abuse. She says church leaders often choose not to look into such suspicions, to avoid humiliating the church with a sex scandal.

"They don't want to believe it," Hamilton says. "So instead of taking the position of maximum safety and going to the police, they persuade themselves that [the suspicion] doesn't have that much merit.

"Then you get exactly what you got in this case — another year of abuse of a kid who shouldn't have been abused in the first place."

When Quinn's girlfriend first learned of the affair between her boyfriend and Susan Brock — a year after the meeting with LDS Stake President Jones, when suspicions of abuse were first brought up — she told her mother. But her mother, who then also suspected that Paul Quinn was getting abused, didn't bother calling police.

On October 9, the day after Quinn's girlfriend cracked the code on his iPod Touch, her mother called Fulton Brock to tell him she knew his wife was abusing Quinn. Rather than call police, Fulton Brock took his wife to meet with the family's LDS bishop, Matthew Meyers, to confess the abuse.

Brock admitted having a sexual relationship with the boy to Meyers, who then called Bishop Troy Hansen, the "ecclesiastic leader" of the Quinn family, to alert him of the affair.

In addition to calling Hansen about the abuse, Meyers called Salt Lake City law firm Kirton & McConkie, which represents the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Meyers also advised Hansen to "call legal" after learning of the abuse because "um, you know, 'cause it, these things are . . . you know, anything with abuse," he later muttered to Detective Perez.

Still, nobody bothered to call police — not even LDS lawyers.

The church issued a statement about the abuse, claiming that it and bishops Meyers and Hansen "were instrumental in getting the [Susan Brock] matter reported to law-enforcement authorities," despite the fact that no LDS official who knew of the affair ever told police.

Meanwhile, on October 12, Craig Quinn — who'd secretly installed key-stroke register software on his computer — discovered the e-mail Paul had written to his girlfriend's mother, in which he references his "darkest secret." Not knowing exactly what Paul's "secret" was, he confronted his son, who broke down and admitted that he was engaging in sexual relations with Susan Brock.

Craig Quinn didn't call police then — he alerted his bishop.

As Craig later told police, after meeting with church leaders to discuss the abuse, he was "under the impression" that police would be called. But they weren't, and Quinn said he got "tired of waiting" and, on October 22, called them himself. This was nearly two weeks after learning of the abuse and more than a year after he first had questioned Susan Brock about whether it was going on.

Following an investigation into the church's responsibility to report the abuse to authorities, Detective Perez wrote in his report, "It is recommended that Troy Hansen and Matthew Meyers be charged with ARS 13-3620, [failure of] duty to report."

The case was handed over to the Pinal County Attorney's Office, which assumed control of the Brock case because of Fulton Brock's relationship with the Maricopa County Attorney's Office and county Superior Court (supervisors control the budgets for these agencies).

The bishops, however, were not charged with crimes, despite knowing abuse was occurring and failing to tell police.

Pinal County Attorney's Office spokesman Kostas Kalaitzidis wouldn't say specifically why the bishops weren't charged. All he would tell New Times is that the County Attorney's Office looks at whether a case is prosecutable in determining whether to go forward. Though Detective Perez may have concluded that the bishops broke the law, prosecutors, apparently, didn't think they could prove it.

The LDS church continues to deny wrongdoing in the Brock case. Though it ignored requests for comment for this article, it has issued several more statements on the matter, including the following:

"Any allegation that church leaders knew of abuse but did nothing is inaccurate and offensive. The church is extremely proactive in its efforts to protect children from abuse of any kind and works diligently to support and assist victims of abuse. When abuse does occur, we work to see that it is reported to the authorities."

Calling the statement absurd, child-abuse expert Hamilton said she gained access to secret LDS temple papers that "show [the church] actually has a policy about concealing abuse."

In the LDS' Handbook of Instructions, excerpts of which were provided to New Times by Hamilton, church leaders, even in cases of child sex abuse, are told:

"To avoid implicating the church in legal matters to which it is not a party, leaders should avoid testifying in civil or criminal cases reviewing the conduct of members over whom they preside. A leader should confer with the church's Office of Legal Services of the area presidency:

• If he is subpoenaed or requested to testify in a case involving a member over whom he presides.

• Before testifying in any case involving abuse.

• Before communicating with attorneys of civil authorities in connection with legal proceedings.

• Before offering verbal or written testimony on behalf of a member in a sentencing hearing, or probationary status hearing."

The handbook goes on to advise: "Church leaders should not try to persuade alleged victims or other witnesses to testify or not to testify in criminal or civil court proceedings."

Hamilton says, "They don't want anyone outside of the religion to know what's going on; they don't want their religion besmirched. And they're willing to sacrifice the children for their own image."

When news broke of his wife's relationship with a teenage boy, County Supervisor Fulton Brock issued a statement the following day, October 27, 2010, in which he described his wife's arrest as "shocking." In another statement, he claimed to be "flabbergasted" by the news.

But Fulton Brock long had been aware of the relationship between his wife and the boy before issuing the statements, and he had worked to minimize the consequences for Susan.

Susan Brock was arrested October 26 after she was stopped on Loop 101 just west of their home. Detective Perez immediately served a search warrant at the house.

From the moment police got to the Brocks' residence, about 11 a.m., the county supervisor was uncooperative, Perez tells New Times. Brock denied having knowledge of his wife's affair with the boy:

"You know, Mr. Perez, I'm so reluctant to say anything that would implicate my wife. We did have a meeting with the Quinns several months ago, and Mr. Quinn did give me an iPhone that was either my daughter's or my wife's. That's all I know. I'm pretty much in the dark on this stuff."

Perez notes in his report that the supervisor's claim that he was ignorant of the relationship was inconsistent with the facts.

Fulton Brock then continued to lie to police, all while making sure they were aware that he was a powerful politician in good favor with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

"Why are there five of you here?" Brock asked Perez before asking whether he needed to "call the sheriff's department" — presumably to have the search stopped, prosecutor Jason Holmberg alleged during Susan Brock's sentencing hearing. Fulton Brock also asked the officers which judge had signed off on the search warrant.

After reviewing the warrant, Brock asked Perez, "What is it that you gentlemen intend to do?"

Perez told Supervisor Brock that he was looking for cell phones, credit cards, computers, and sex toys (one of them pink), among other items.

"This is crazy — a pink-colored phallic sex toy? I have never seen . . . my wife has never . . . could someone have planted that in my wife's car, or my wife's person?" the county supervisor asked Perez.

Detectives later found "a number of vibrating devices" in the Brocks' bedroom, one of which Fulton Brock told police he used for his bad back.

As for the credit card and cell phone, the county supervisor initially told Detective Perez he had no idea where they could be. However, when Perez pressed him about it later, Brock retrieved both the card and the phone from a locked metal box in his desk and turned them over to police.

Fulton Brock's desire to minimize the consequences for his wife didn't start on the day of her arrest.

In early September 2010, more than a month before Susan Brock's arrest — and several weeks before he was told about his wife's affair with Quinn by the boy's girlfriend's mother — the county supervisor asked former Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley if he could help find a lawyer specializing in cases of sexual abuse of minors. He told Romley it was "for a friend."

As first reported by the Arizona Republic, Romley later hand-delivered the names of three defense attorneys to Brock's county office.

The day Susan Brock was arrested, more than a month after Romley delivered the list of attorneys to Fulton Brock's office, she told police it was their "lucky day" after she was pulled over on the 101.

Susan, it appears, was on her way to meet with an attorney about the sexual-abuse charges she apparently was anticipating. Police were "lucky" because an incriminating note was on the front seat of her car when she was stopped. The note was titled "History" and apparently was intended for an attorney.

At the top of the page was a "series of questions, presumably for a person Susan Brock was going to meet with," Detective Perez notes in his report.

The third line of the note stated: "How much might we cover in an hr?"

Under that line were the following notes:

"Mr. Larry Kazan said we could do hr. billing. Your rate is . . .?

"Intake treatment SLC goal. Avoiding prison goal. Putting life [in] order, keeping family together.

"Mother, daughter, girlfriend, extorted.

"Mentally insane defense?

"Any sexual felony difference intercourse or fellatio minor?"

The note, Perez concluded after subpoenaing a handwriting sample from the county supervisor, probably was written by Fulton Brock. The attorney for whom the note apparently was intended was one of the three on the list Romley had provided the supervisor.

Even after Brock was booked into a county jail, her husband used his position to make things as comfortable as possible for his wife — and to arrange special meetings with her that would not be recorded by detention officers.

Arpaio's willingness to help the Brocks apparently was unwavering.

Fulton Brock told Susan in a phone call: "Well, [then-sheriff's chief financial officer] Loretta [Barkwell] came to me yesterday, and she goes, 'Look, the sheriff wants to get all this craziness behind us, and we wanna bend over backwards, we wanna do whatever we can,' So I thought, Hmmm, maybe the time is right for me to call Loretta and say, Loretta, I got a problem."

At one point, Susan Brock complained that she wished the county supervisor had given her a "blessing" before he had left the jail during a recent visit.

"You know what? I should have had you give me one yesterday. I regretted that so much after you left," she said.

Fulton Brock responded, "I'll get permission again [for the blessing], and . . . the sheriff will make it happen."

During recorded conversations, Fulton and Susan censored what they talked about and repeatedly advised each other to save certain discussions for meetings that would not be recorded by detention officers. The following is a conversation between the Brocks after discussing a document Susan had signed while Fulton wasn't present:

Susan: "Oh . . . well . . . I will, I will explain everything. I'll tell you why . . . I just needed to, um . . ."

Fulton: "Yeah, just tell me tomorrow . . . I don't wanna . . ."

Susan: "That's what I'm saying."Fulton: "I don't want to say anything because these, you know, these . . ."

Susan: "I know! It's just . . ."

Fulton: "These vultures are listening to everything, and they're . . ."

Susan: "I know, I know. And . . . soon enough, they won't be interested anymore in what I have."

In another recorded conversation, Fulton Brock tells his wife how he had delivered a letter to her friend Christian Weems. It's unclear what was in the letter, but Weems later was charged with trying to destroy evidence against Susan after police learned Weems had been given the password to a secret e-mail account Susan used to communicate with Paul Quinn. Weems pleaded guilty last month to one misdemeanor charge of computer tampering. She's scheduled to be sentenced October 7.

Since the news of his family's sex scandal broke, Supervisor Brock basically has been a recluse, which has made his job as a public official awkward.

His first somewhat public appearance, where he was forced to face reporters' questions, was in May — nearly eight months after it was made public that his wife and daughter had engaged in sexual relationships with a teenage boy.

Following a speech with Sheriff Arpaio (to recovering drug addicts at one of Arpaio's jails), Brock faced a gaggle of reporters who had one thing on their minds: his family's sex scandal, about which he still refused to answer questions.

"I can only comment on government-related things today. I'm not gonna respond to anything relative to my family or personal matters," Brock told reporters.

Since Brock hasn't addressed these "family or personal matters," the question of whether he is capable of continuing on as a public official has been raised — mainly because he refuses to discuss when he first learned of the relationship and whether he should be held responsible criminally.

It's clear that he knew the boy's family suspected a sexual relationship between his wife and their son, that he never called police, and that he never did anything to stop the abuse.

It's also clear that Fulton Brock did what he could, as an elected official with powerful friends, to help her evade justice.

Aside from his "special" meetings with his jailed wife, compliments of political ally Arpaio, Brock also talked of appealing to Governor Jan Brewer, possibly asking her to pardon his sex-offender wife.

During one of the many conversations the county supervisor had with Susan while she was in jail, he mentions that he "ran into the governor today."

"Jan?" Susan Brock asked.

"Yeah. I had lunch today in Durant's as a guest of a vendor of the county," he said.

Susan asked, "Yeah, what did Jan say?"

Brock responds, "Governor Brewer was with three other ladies. She was with her chief of staff. They were all having a good time, and I shook her hand, and I said, 'I just wanted to say hello and thank you.' She called me twice, and I said [her calls] meant a lot to me. I just shook her hand, smiled, and started to walk away. She said, 'We need to have lunch.'"

Susan Brock then said, "Well, you need to have lunch with her. Wow, that's great!"

"She has the power to pardon," the county supervisor told his wife, before Susan added, "I'm gonna need it."

The Pinal County Attorney's Office tells New Times there are no charges pending against Supervisor Brock.

When asked whether there was a possibility that Fulton Brock would be arrested for lying to police about his prior knowledge of the affair between his wife and Paul Quinn, Detective Perez tells New Times: "Don't hold your breath."

This despite Arizona law's decreeing that "any person who reasonably believes that a minor is or has been the victim of physical injury, abuse, child abuse, a reportable offense or neglect [is required to report the abuse to authorities]."

Says clergy sex-abuse expert Marci Hamilton: "[Susan Brock's] a sociopath and a pedophile, and what really needs to be known is just how much her husband knew. That [was] a really corrupt and corrosive atmosphere in the [Brock] house, and if he knew about this boy and he didn't report it, that means [he] certainly is an enabler."

Good Riddance!!!! Fulton Brock won't seek re-election

Supervisor Fulton Brock won't seek re-election

by Michelle Ye Hee Lee - Jan. 31, 2012 06:15 PM

The Republic | azcentral.com

Long-time Maricopa County Supervisor Fulton Brock on Tuesday announced he will not seek re-election in 2012, amid a sex-abuse scandal that has shaken his family for more than a year.

Brock said in an interview he decided it was time to "shift gears" and focus on spending more time with his children.

Brock's ex-wife and middle daughter are charged with sexually abusing the same minor boy. Brock filed for divorce after authorities arrested his then-wife on child-abuse charges in October 2010.

"I've had a lot of family challenges. They certainly have been significant," Brock said. "I want to be able to spend as much time as I can getting my children back on track. They're my first priority."

Since news of the scandal broke, it had been unclear whether Brock would pursue a re-election campaign.

Brock had bowed out of the bid for county Board of Supervisors chairman last year and again this January, saying he needed to focus on his family and was not ready for the demands of a chairmanship.

He had said publicly he was raising money for his 2012 campaign, and then filed for re-election in November. As of Tuesday, the deadline to file campaign-finance reports, he had not filed one for a 2012 re-election campaign.

Brock said since Thanksgiving, he began seriously talking with his family about running again for political office. Brock has served on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors since 1996.

His ex-wife, Susan, is serving a 13-year prison sentence after being convicted of sexually molesting a teen, starting when the boy was 14 years old.

About two months after Susan was arrested, Brock's 22-year-old daughter, Rachel, was accused of molesting that same boy. Brock's daughter pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to 10 years' probation with one year of deferred jail time.

Brock has not commented publicly on his family's matters. On Tuesday, he said: "With respect to my specific challenges from my ex-wife, my children, I'm not prepared to comment on. I feel my children are reasonably well. Hopefully, as I continue to give them assistance and guidance, that they can get their lives back on track in losing their mother and everything."

Brock has two other daughters, a 24-year-old who is married and lives out of state, and a 17-year-old who is a senior in high school. Brock said he wants to help see his daughter off to college.

The East Valley Republican will serve out the rest of his fourth term as Maricopa County supervisor. The new Board of Supervisors takes oath January 2013. All five supervisors are up for re-election this year.

Brock said he has no plans to run for another political office and plans to continue working as an investment adviser until he decides what to do after his current term ends.

"I'll see at the end of the year what direction makes most sence," Brock said.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the only candidate for Brock's District 1 supervisorial seat was Denny Barney, a Gilbert Republican and private investor.

Barney has raised at least $131,657 so far, according to his first campaign-finance report filed last week.

Barney has served on the Maricopa County Planning and Zoning Commission, and is on the board of directors for several community organizations, including the East Valley Partnership and Mesa United Way.

Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox, elected to the Board of Supervisors one term prior to Brock, said Tuesday that her colleague's decision was not entirely unexpected given the challenges in his personal life.

"I've been here ever since he's gotten elected. I always think he was very conscientious to his constituents. But sometimes when personal things happen, it just gets to be overwhelming," Wilcox said. "I just stand by him and wish him the best of luck and hope that he moves on ... and will find some calmness."

"This is the right decision for him and his family. I wish him all the best," Maricopa County Supervisor Andy Kunasek said.

More articles on Maricopa County Supervisor Fulton Brock and his wife Susan Brock.