Chris Simcox, the former leader of the anti-immigration Minuteman movement, was slapped with a restraining order that prohibits him from contacting his estranged wife Alena Simcox and their children, after allegedly threatening his family on several occasions. He was also ordered to surrender all of his weapons.
Simcox played a major role in founding the Minuteman group, which organized thousands of anti-immigration activists to patrol the border between the U.S. and Mexico and report suspicious activity.
In February 2010, he dropped out of the Republican primary for Arizona Sen. John McCain’s seat, and has since endorsed Tea Party favorite J.D. Hayworth. He also once described himself as a “senior advisor” to Hayworth, though a Hayworth spokesman told
the Phoenix News Times that he was unclear about Simcox’s role in the campaign.
Simcox was ordered to stay 200 yards away from Alena Simcox, their two children, and his wife’s child from a previous marriage, after she was granted an order of protection by the Maricopa County court commissioner on April 16. The order also forbids Simcox from “possessing, receiving, or purchasing firearms or ammunition,” and requires him to “surrender same” to the local police.
According to the Phoenix News Times, which first reported the incident, the Scottsdale Police Department has no record of Simcox doing so.
Alena Simcox’s complaint alleges that on multiple occasions, after drinking, Chris Simcox threatened her “with a gun. Repeatedly pointed it at me, saying he was going to kill me, and my kids, and the police. Kids were present and saw him. Very verbally abusive to me throughout the incident. Punched my wall in and destroyed [an] office door.”
She also details e-mails he sent that accuse her of “phone sex” and “adultery with many [different] men.” She has since filed for divorce.
This is not Simcox’s first brush with the law. His first wife accused him of molesting their daughter, his second wife said in 2001 that he exhibited “dangerous” behavior after a “mental breakdown,” and he also was convicted of carrying a semi-automatic weapon into a national park in 2004.
