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This Week
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SPORTS.................................. Arizona high schools mull new sport: gaming.
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GET OUT................................ Gilbert authors flocking to Payson.
COMMUNITY......................10 BUSINESS............................. 16 OPINION............................... 19 SPORTS................................ 20 GETOUT................................24 CLASSIFIED........................ 28
Sunday, July 14, 2019
Gilbert lawman gets justice for rape victims BY JIM WALSH GSN Staff Writer
BUSINESS............................ Sun keeps Gilbert plastic surgeon busy.
Gilbert teen aims for archery contest. PAGE 10
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exual assault victims from the East Valley and throughout the nation are finally getting justice – even though they had to wait far too long. In Maricopa County alone, an exhaustive quest to test a backlog of more than 4,500 sexual assault examination kits dating back 27 years is finally winding toward an end early next year with about 200 kits to go. In Phoenix, the person who spearheaded this four-year campaign to right a wrong was Gilbert’s Jon Eliason, a former Mesa city prosecutor who served as division chief of the Special Victims Bureau at the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office at the time the campaign began.
“You have all these women who went through an exam fully believing that the police would analyze it,’’ said Eliason, now chief of the County Attorney's Major Crimes Division. “I can’t imagine there was a victim who went through the examination who expected it would not be tested.’’ “It’s doing the right thing, bringing closure to victims and arresting bad guys for violent, intimate crimes,’’ Eliason said. Defendants who might have thought they got away with felonies a decade or more ago are going to prison instead, thanks to the inexorable trail of DNA evidence and a more enlightened approach by police and prosecutors.
see VICTIMS page 4
Before becoming chief of the County Attorney's Special Victims Bureau, Gilbert’s Jon Eliason attacked the backlog of thousands of rape kits. (Pablo Robles/GSN Staff Photographer)
Historic Morrison Ranch hits a milestone
BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
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he last remaining farmland in Gilbert zoned for single-family homes has sold at Morrison Ranch, the 2,000acre master-planned community in the southeast part of town. Four homebuilders – Maracay Homes, Toll Bros Homes, Fulton Homes and Taylor Morrison Homes – each bought portions of the remaining 119 acres to build 330 homes. “They will do all the improvements in the next 12 to 15 months – streets, utilities and roads – and then they will build models and begin building spec homes and selling to the public,” said Howard Morrison, a partner at Morrison Ranch. “Certainly, there would not be anyone occupying any homes in next year and a half;
The Morrison family kept the old silos from their ranch operation near residential communities now on the land. (The Morrison Family)
possibly longer, depending on the market,” he said. The upcoming homes will add to the approximately 2,700 that currently exist in Morrison Ranch, according to Morrison. The new homes will continue the commu-
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nity’s architectural styles of Ranch, Prairie, Craftsman, and Farmhouse in the 10th and final neighborhood. Improvements for the new neighborhood include extending Cole and Highland Glen roads south to Warner Road and extending Bloomfield Parkway east from Higley Road, according to a company news release. Additionally, the improvement of the midsection line trail will complete the 2-mile-long feature through the heart of Morrison
Ranch. Escrow on the 119 acres closed in late June. Morrison Ranch now has left 34 acres
see MORRISON page 3
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