Judi Villa
The Arizona Republic
May. 31, 2003 12:00 AM

Gloria Schulze is a convicted killer. And she's walking free.

Nearly eight years after an arrest warrant was issued and two years after Schulze was convicted of manslaughter in absentia, Rose Marie Maher can't understand why no one is looking for the woman who drove drunk one summer night in 1994 and killed her only daughter.

Angela Maher, 21, a college senior who dreamed of being a U.N. ambassador, died at the scene. Schulze, now 40, disappeared days before her trial was to begin in 1995.

"I sure in the hell hope they find her before I die," Rose Marie said, "because I live for that."

Yet, on any given day, there are more than 70,000 criminal warrants outstanding in Maricopa County, a handful dating to 1970. About half of the warrants are for felonies, including hundreds for murders, rapes, child molestations and other violent crimes. That's more, and in some cases double, the number of felony warrants in four similar-size counties nationwide.

Local law enforcement agencies say they simply don't have the resources to track down fugitives. They blame a burgeoning population and an increase in the number of courts in the Valley. Some also question whether bail restrictions need to be tightened to keep more people behind bars in the first place.

Last year, 50,840 new warrants were filed at the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, which is the county's repository for all warrants; 50,718 were cleared. In 2001, 50,349 new warrants were filed and 45,921 were cleared.

'Overwhelming' task

"It's overwhelming," said Phoenix police Sgt. Bill Laman, who supervises the department's fugitive detail. "It's kind of like paying off the national debt on my salary."

Despite the disproportionately high number of warrants, several Valley police agencies don't have a single officer dedicated to tracking the wanted.

In Phoenix, which has the highest number of officers (10) assigned to a fugitive detail in the Valley, detectives look for the most violent fugitives but only when they get a break from new cases that take priority. At the Sheriff's Office, the warrant squad was reduced from six people to two about two years ago.

"Very few agencies go after warrants," said Sgt. John Bailey of the Sheriff's Office. "That's why they're stacking up."

And officials say fugitives often will continue to commit more crimes. Consider:

• An arrest warrant for Eric Jones, 26, was issued in October on a charge of aggravated assault. Five months later, Jones was accused of shooting a man in the back and arm during a dispute. He was finally captured during a shootout with Phoenix police this month.

• Justin and Mary Grodin fled to Florida from Mesa after they were indicted in January 1999 on child-abuse charges after their 2-month-old son suffered a fractured skull during a beating. While they were on the lam, police say, the couple murdered their 11-month-old daughter, Gretchen, and left her in a wooded area in Fort Myers, Fla. The couple were arrested in Seattle shortly after the partly buried body was found.

"Clearly the justice system is losing its credibility, and the public is being endangered," County Attorney Rick Romley said. "It sends a horrible message that you can maybe get away with your criminal ways if you keep a low profile."

It's not a new problem. A decade ago, there were about 40,000 warrants in Maricopa County, and officials were warning that something needed to be done. But the problem has only escalated.

Maricopa County, the sixth-largest in the country, has more outstanding felony warrants than like-size Cook County, Ill.; Harris County, Texas; and San Diego County, where the Sheriff's Department recently was chastised by the San Diego County grand jury for failing to do enough to track the wanted. Outstanding felony warrants in San Diego County total 17,106, about half the number here.

San Diego County Assistant Sheriff Bill Flores said authorities have to make difficult decisions about priorities and how to disburse a limited pot of money.

"We can throw resources at reducing the number of outstanding warrants, but that would mean there are fewer officers out there responding to calls from people who need help right now," Flores said. "We have to weigh the resources that are out there."

Nearly 1 million wanted people across the nation are listed in the National Crime Information Center database, but that's only a small percentage of fugitives. Only those wanted for felonies or serious misdemeanors that warrant extradition from any state make it into the database. Nearly 12,000 Arizona fugitives are in the database.

Fugitives' tricks

"People ask, 'Why do you have so many warrants?' " said Deputy Chief Steve Werner of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. "People just don't sit still. People involved in criminal activity know they're wanted. They'll change their identity or one number in their Social Security or their birth date just to throw us off long enough."

Many law enforcement agencies now have tip lines for people to turn in fugitives and post the wanted on the Internet. In Maricopa County, agencies participate in the FBI's Violent Crimes Task Force and band together three or four times a year to saturate areas looking for fugitives. Earlier this year, a 30-day roundup in east Mesa netted more than 200 arrests and cleared about 100 warrants.

"Every once in awhile you get lucky," said Bailey, who participated in the east Mesa roundup. "A lot of these people, they're very transient. They're hard to track down. Once they know there's a warrant out there, they avoid home or the addresses they have given us."

"I don't think we'll ever get caught up," Bailey added.

The routine traffic stop has become one of the best ways to find the wanted. Or sometimes fugitives get caught when they apply for jobs and undergo a background check or when they sign up to visit a friend in jail.

"Putting a warrant in the system doesn't necessarily get the person off the street," Laman said. "Probably the majority of warrants that are cleared are from the patrol guys. They stumble across them on traffic stops."

Still, officers insist a warrant isn't a get-out-of-jail-free card, and they say they're not about to be defeated by the numbers.

Phoenix police Detective Doug Briese keeps a stack of about 100 unserved warrants in his car. Whenever he gets a free moment, he runs them to see if they're still current, then drives by businesses and homes looking for a person or a car. Sometimes, detectives sit outside a home for days waiting for someone who may not be there anymore.

"Do a lot of people probably get through? Maybe," Briese said. "But it's not the intent of the investigators. They want to see justice."

On a rainy night in February, officials from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office and the Adult Probation Department set out to arrest 14 people. Six were caught.

"Everybody lies to you," said Lance Nickell, a surveillance officer with the Probation Department. "Relatives, families, nobody will tell you the truth."

On this night, one man had moved and another had left for a job in Eloy. Jared Valenzuela, 21, answered the door himself and was greeted by deputies waiting with handcuffs.

William Lindsay, 22, tried to hide in a back room at a friend's house, where he went after finding out officers visited his Queen Creek home the day before.

"Put your hands up! Put your hands up!" deputies yelled at the door.

"I'm so amazed he was here," Nickell said. "This was too easy."

Lindsay, who has a history that includes burglarizing a car, stabbing a friend at a party and fighting with deputies trying to arrest him, was wanted on a probation violation charge.

"Everybody gets caught someday," Lindsay said as he waited for a ride to jail.

Victim's mother waits

But, so far, that hasn't included Gloria Schulze.

With today's technology, Rose Marie Maher said, it shouldn't be so hard to find Schulze - if someone was actually looking.

Scottsdale police Detective Shawn Twitchell said it has been years since there have been any tips on Schulze's whereabouts. The story was featured on America's Most Wanted and other national television shows, but when the leads dried up, Scottsdale police gave the case to the FBI.

"We aren't actively looking for her," Twitchell said. "What's going to have to happen for her to get caught is she's either going to have to get stopped and arrested and her prints will be run or somebody who knows her will have to turn her in. It's very frustrating. I'd definitely like to see her caught."

So would Maher, who lost her only daughter on that summer night nearly nine years ago. Angela was supposed to be gone only long enough to give a friend a ride.

"Angela, put your seat belt on," Maher said to her daughter as she walked out the door. "I love you."

"And she said, 'I love you more,' " Maher said, "and that was it."

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