Amy Silverman and Paul Rubin in New Times:

Ronald Brewer […] was deemed criminally insane in 1990, following a July 1989 arrest and subsequent indictment for the sexual assault and kidnapping of a Phoenix woman. According to a Phoenix Police Department report dated July 29, 1989, Brewer, then an unemployed 25-year-old, forced his way into a woman’s apartment on West Indian School Road and threatened to hurt her “real bad” if she didn’t engage in sexual acts, including performing fellatio.

[…]

Those details are not available for public inspection at county Superior Court — even though in a typical criminal case, they probably would be. On January 9, 2009, Superior Court Judge Pendleton Gaines sealed the entire case file at the request of Ronald Brewer’s attorney.

On December 1, 2008, President-Elect Barack Obama nominated then-Governor Janet Napolitano to be the head of Homeland Security. Her successor? Secretary of State Jan Brewer. Brewer assumed office as governor on January 21.

The timing is curious.

And that’s not the even the juicy part.

Phoenix Newspapers (a.k.a. the Arizona Republic) filed a motion in July asking the judge to reconsider his January 2009 sealing order.

That motion also is under wraps. The court docket suggests that a ruling by the judge is pending.

The docket also strongly suggests that Ronald Brewer has several times over many years attempted to gain permanent release from his confinement at the state hospital in Phoenix, and has successfully won temporary release at various times.