GILBERT — The Town of Gilbert is investigating who leaked a false 2024 rumor about Arizona Republic investigative reporter Robert Anglen — a smear that town coverage and the newspaper say was aimed at undercutting reporting on the Gilbert Goons youth-violence cases.
According to The Arizona Republic’s Oct. 2 reporting and the paper’s statewide briefing, officials are trying to identify the source of the falsehood after it resurfaced in public debate over how Gilbert handled years of alleged teenage assaults. Vice Mayor Chuck Bongiovanni confirmed an inquiry is underway and downplayed the episode, calling it an “absolute nothingburger” and a “little personal issue” in comments summarized by the Republic.
Prior coverage of the rumor described it as tying Anglen to an unrelated 2013 arrest involving a different person with a similar name — a claim the Republic and local opinion writers flagged as false when it circulated among Gilbert political circles in late 2024. Anglen has been a lead reporter on the Goons cases, which have drawn statewide attention, court hearings and continued police appeals for tips on unsolved youth-violence incidents.
Press-freedom advocates and East Valley residents have watched Gilbert’s response closely: whether a municipal probe into a rumor about a journalist will clarify accountability — or deepen distrust between the town’s political leadership and the newsroom documenting its most painful crime story.
Gilbert police and town communications had not, as of Friday’s Republic briefing, announced a timeline or named a lead investigator for the leak inquiry. The Goons-related criminal cases continue separately in Maricopa County courts.