A brief Pearce family history

Presented without comments because none are needed.

From the Phoenix New Times' Feathered Bastard, written by Stephen Lemons -

State Senate President-elect Russell Pearce's son Joshua Trent Pearce was recently under investigation by the Mesa Police Department for allegations of possible child abuse.


Mesa PD spokesman Sgt. Ed Wessing confirmed that police responded to a call December 10 from Banner Desert Medical Center regarding a nine day-old baby girl, the daughter of Joshua Pearce and his wife Samantha.

According to Wessing, hospital staff told police that the child had a skull fracture, and that the parents' explanation of how the fracture may have occurred did not jibe with the severity of the injury.

{snip}

Today, Wessing informed me that no charges would be forthcoming.


"The Mesa Police Department will not be submitting criminal charges in this case," Wessing told me via e-mail. "At this time we do not have sufficient probable cause to charge Mr. Pearce in this case."

{snip}

This is not Josh Pearce's first brush with the law. In 2006, he was arrested by the Mesa PD for a DUI, while driving on a suspended license. He told police that he was a regular user of marijuana, but that he no longer drank alcohol because of a previous DUI.


In the car with him was Samantha and their then five day-old child Wyatt.

{snip}

His job was listed as "roofer." Court documents described his last known address as being 1247 East Inca Street in Mesa, the same listed on state Senator Russell Pearce's campaign finance reports with the Arizona Secretary of State.


Wessing stated that Josh Pearce now has a different Mesa address on file.

In 2007, the County Attorney's Office hit Josh Pearce with two felony counts of aggravated DUI. Josh pleaded guilty to one count in a deal with prosecutors and received five years probation.

Russell Pearce himself is no stranger to allegations of domestic abuse. In 2008, I revealed the existence of a marriage dissolution petition filed by Pearce's wife LuAnne in 1980, which alleged physical abuse at the hands of her husband.

It reads in part, "Further, the husband, RUSSELL KEITH PEARCE, is possessed of a violent temper, and has from time to time hit and shoved the wife, the last time being on February 3 [1980], when he grabbed the wife by the throat and threw her down."

The Pearces were ultimately reconciled and remain married to this day.

{snip}

Josh Pearce was born in November of 1980, around nine months following the document's filing.


Also in 2008, I blogged about a 1974 police report that stated Pearce, then a young sheriff's deputy, busted down the door of his first wife Karen. Karen and Russell were divorced the same year. No charges were ever filed in that incident.

A similar summary from David Safier at Blog for Arizona can be found here.

Note: I generally don't quote other writers' work this extensively (preferring to quote a paragraph or two and link to the entire piece), but I feel it is appropriate in this case as Mr. Lemons has done a far better job of succinctly documenting the Pearce family's activities than I could.