Sen. Wendy Rogers runs to court to avoid a reporter armed with ... questions

Corrections & Clarifications: An earlier version of this column misidentified Amy Criddle’s role with the court.

Sen. Wendy Rogers has come up with a novel approach to block the public from finding out whether she really lives in her legislative district.

Apparently, she’s worried. So much so that she’s enlisted the aid of a judge to thwart a state Capitol reporter’s legitimate inquiry into her place of residence.

And to my utter astonishment, the judge actually went along with Rogers’ scheme.

Rogers said she lives in Tempe, records show

Suspicions have swirled for years about where Rogers really lives, ever since she supposedly moved out of her longtime Tempe home to go live in a trailer in Flagstaff and run for the state Senate in 2020.

Arizona law requires legislators to live in the district they represent for at least a year before their election, though judges have mostly made a mockery of that law.

So when Arizona Capitol Times reporter Camryn Sanchez discovered Rogers and her husband bought a $750,000 home in Chandler in January, she launched an investigation.

Like any good reporter, Sanchez hit up publicly available property records and dug out the documentation, according to a story by the Cap Times’ Wayne Schutsky.Imagine her surprise to find paperwork filed as part of the purchase – signed on Jan. 27 by both Rogers and her husband – stating that they were “currently residing” not in their Flagstaff trailer but at their supposed previous home in Tempe.

Which, like their house in Chandler, is nowhere near Rogers’ northern Arizona legislative district.

So, ringing a doorbell is 'stalking'?

So, Sanchez did what diligent reporters do. She went to both houses, hoping to find out the truth of where Rogers really lives.

Rogers’ response was to run to a Flagstaff judge and claim she’s being stalked.

“Creepy @azcapitoltimes reporter @CamrynSanchezAZ has been stalking me and my neighbors at my private residences with no explanation,” she tweeted on Thursday. “A judge just issued a restraining order against her for her bizarre behavior.”

Sure enough, Amy Criddle, a Flagstaff pro tem justice of the peace, granted Rogers’ request on April 19, issuing an injunction against harassment and ordering Sanchez not to contact Rogers at her residences.

So what was this so-called “bizarre behavior” that prompted the judge to threaten Sanchez with arrest should she dare go in search of the truth about where the senator really lives?

What manner of harassment was poor Sen. Rogers forced to endure?

Rogers attached three doorbell camera photos showing Sanchez just standing there as she rang the doorbell and waited to see if someone would answer.

“I don’t know this reporter personally,” Rogers said in a statement issued on Thursday. “I don’t know what she is capable of, and I don’t believe anyone in their right mind would show up uninvited to my home at night. Therefore, I don’t trust that this person wouldn’t lash out and try to physically harm me in some fashion.”

It's not the first time Rogers has tried to stop Sanchez from doing her job. In March, she asked Senate President Warren Petersen to bar her from the Senate floor – a privilege granted to reporters who regularly cover the Capitol.

This, apparently because she dared to approach Rogers’ desk with a question – again, a routine move for a Capitol reporter.

Why did a judge go along with this?

In her petition to the judge, Rogers wrote that she filed the request for an injunction “at the urging of the Senate President.”

Sure, I can see why a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who touts her military pilot training and poses on occasion with her trusty AR-15 might fear a reporter armed with a notebook – and questions the good senator clearly doesn’t want to answer.

What I cannot understand is why any self respecting judge would assist her in dodging a reporter’s legitimate investigation.

Does Rogers live in Tempe, where one neighbor told Sanchez the legislator has been living for more than a decade?

Does she live in the home she recently bought in Chandler – the one with a hangar where she can park her plane?

Or does she live in a trailer in Flagstaff – and, by the way, collect tens of thousands of dollars every year in per-diem payments given to lawmakers who live outside of Maricopa County?

Rogers’ northern Arizona constituents have a right to know whether their representative is really, well, their representative.

And last I checked, public officials are answerable to the public.

Reach Roberts at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Sen. Wendy Rogers runs to court over a reporter armed with questions