Confronting Notorious Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Ex-Bay Cityan Plans Film

Alison Hicks Publishes Book, "Backspin," Documenting Her Abuse in Jails

April 28, 2009
By: Dave Rogers

Alison Hicks, as any good tennis player, knows never to give up.

Ms. Hicks, 43, a tennis pro and former swimsuit model, is in a highly-publicized battle with Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, over her treatment in his jails.

In her book, "Backspin," published under the ExLibris label, Ms. Hicks alleges abuse by brutal deputies and sexually-motivated female inmates.

The case has become an Internet and media sensation, especially since a Hispanic website has taken up her cause.

The website, "Hispanic News," part of the Jon Garrido News Network, is serializing the book and leading the effort to recall Sheriff Arpaio, who is the target of numerous complaints of discrimination against Hispanics.

The sensational story of Ms. Hicks is used by the Hispanic website as evidence in the campaign against Sheriff Arpaio. The website also is supporting her efforts to have the film produced and is launching a fund drive to that end.

Weekly World News publicized her plight in 2003 after her arrest. "Tennis Pro Goes From Glamour Gal to Slammer Gal," shouted WWN on April 22, 2003. "A beautiful blonde former Weekly World News Page 5 girl says her glamorous life was destroyed when she was thrown in jail for a crime she didn't commit."

The story is summarized on her website, www.alisonhicks.com:

"Backspin is a painful memoir of a single mother's wrongful conviction of a crime she never committed. Tennis pro Alison Hicks fought with her boyfriend one day while she was in the park with daughter Jessann. After she parked her car in front of her home, she threw into a crying fit and told her daughter to go into their neighbor's house so she would not see her crying.

"She drove a few blocks away from her house and cried all her emotions out. When she came back, a police officer was waiting for her and arrested her of child neglect. Lesbian inmates and sexually abusive officers accompanied her in jail for the following weeks.

With an inexperienced lawyer (a public defender) handling her case, Hicks was forced to plead guilty for the charges filed against her. The inexperienced public defender convinced Alison to plead guilty, assuring her that she'd be given probation and placed in a 'diversionary program' and the charges would be expunged from her record forever. "I didn't know I'd signed my life away," she said bitterly.

"As a result, she was faced with the fangs of betrayal and conspiracy set to destroy her. Everything she worked for was doomed to be taken away. But being the tough woman that she was, Alison conquered her fears and fought for her biggest battle. With the help of the media, she was eventually exonerated of the charges filed against her.

"A recollection of Hicks' bitter struggle to prove to a flawed criminal system her innocence, Backspin provides optimism to others who are going through the same ordeal and calls for an effective delivery of justice."

Weekly World News wrote in 2003: "Incredibly, it all happened because she left her 6-year-old daughter unattended for two-and-a-half minutes in a luxury community to walk to a neighbor's house -- and ended up being arrested for felony child abuse. She lost her home and her job as a tennis pro as a result of the charges and has spent upwards of $80,000 in legal fees trying to clear her good name.

"Her perfect world came crashing down on the afternoon of Jan. 17, 2001," wrote WWN. "As Alison was driving her daughter Jessann home from a fun outing, she got in a fight on her cell phone with her boyfriend that reduced her to tears. The rattled beauty was so worried by her crying fit that she called 911, fearing she might harm herself -- sparking an unforeseeable chain of events.

"When Alison pulled into the development, she let Jessann out of the car and told her to walk to her best friend's house -- just a few yards away. 'I didn't want her to see me crying,' explains Alison. "As she drove up to her house, a squad car screeched up beside her and out jumped a police officer convinced she was about to commit suicide. He started yelling at me, 'Do you have a gun? Do you know where your daughter is? Alison told the cop she didn't know where Jessann was -- a big mistake. He told me, 'you're arrested for child abuse. He pinned my hands behind my back and handcuffed me so tight my wrists were bruised.' On the way to the police station, the sneering cop taunted the terrified blonde, chuckling: 'poor little rich girl, you're going to have fun.'"

After a terrifying ordeal "caged with violent criminals including cop killers and a 'torso lady' who'd chopped up her husband," strip searches and advances from brutal and lust-crazed inmates, she was placed on probation, fired from her job and listed by the FBI as a convicted felon.

"The wholesome blonde was incarcerated in some of Arizona's toughest prisons, from a notorious tent jail in the desert to a grim warehouse for hardened female cons called 'The Tower,'" wrote WWN.

When her story appeared in WWN, thousands of letters of support poured in and Judge Ronald Reinstein ended her probation and expunged all record of her conviction.

The former Bay City Central High tennis star and Central Michigan University theatre graduate now is at the center of the storm that has led to U.S. House Judiciary Committee hearings regarding allegations of civil rights abuses by Arpaio against Hispanics.

The attractive, demure Hicks is no stranger to the headlines, having been the subject of an interview in the National Enquirer in 2006 admitting to an affair with the late Johnny Carson.

"Johnny Carson's Secret Addiction to Drugs and Sex: Funnyman's Teen Lover Reveals His Private Struggles," screamed the Enquirer headline. The interview included a picture of the baby-faced Alison and nine of Carson's "women."

In the interview, she recalled late night encounters with the tennis-playing Carson at his ocean-front estate in 1983. She was 18 at the time and told the Enquirer the affair ended when she moved back to Michigan at the end of the summer.

Her first job as a tennis teacher was with the Bay County Chapter of the National Junior Tennis League in 1981-82.

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Dave Rogers
Dave Rogers is a former editorial writer for the Bay City Times and a widely read, respected journalist/writer in and around Bay City. More from Dave Rogers

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