Investigative reporter Tammy Leitner has been getting Arizona's most wanted criminals locked up, protecting consumers and become a watchdog for parents and children since joining CBS 5 News in September 2002.

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Leitner reports investigative, long-format, crime stories and periodically covers breaking news. She has earned more than 20 journalism awards for television and newspaper reporting, including three regional Emmy Awards and 13 nominations.

Her hard-hitting interviews have ranged from Hillary Clinton, Mike Tyson and Nelson Mandela to serial killers, prostitutes, child molesters and gang members. Other highly-charged assignments have ranged from videotaping "witches" in a rarely seen pagan ritual; exposing teachers' inappropriate MySpace pages; catching convenient stores selling crack pipes; identifying the growing number of female sex offenders; going undercover to show how restaurants deceived and overcharged customers by mislabeling fish; and confronting a dentist who jumped from state to state, leaving a trail of injured patients in his wake. He was stripped of his license to practice after her reports aired.

Other award-winning work includes:

• Revealing how an air duct company was scamming elderly customers into believing they had black mold and then charging them thousands of dollars for work it never did. The state attorney general filed criminal charges against the company after Leitner's reports aired. (Read Story)
• Becoming the first female reporter to stay overnight as an inmate and give viewers a first-person look at life inside Sheriff Joe Arpaio's notorious Tent City (Watch Story)
• Covering Sammy "The Bull" Gravano's arrest for running an Arizona ecstasy ring

While reporting, Leitner has been attacked by police dogs, shot by a Taser, fought the female welterweight champion of the world, jumped out of an airplane, worked as a member of a NASCAR pit crew and burst into a burning building.

Away from the office, Leitner is an accomplished triathlete and is a member of PowerBar Team Elite. When she’s not training or doing investigative reports for CBS 5 News, Leitner loves to travel, is an accomplished photographer and is always looking for a new adventure with her husband Mike and her Newfoundland, Bacchus.

Many TV viewers also know Leitner as a cast member on the hit CBS reality show "Survivor: Marquesas" in 2002.

tleitner@kpho.com