PHOENIX -- Change is coming to the Phoenix Police Department, and some officers aren’t embracing it.
The change has to do with one of their uniforms.
The new Phoenix Police Chief Daniel Garcia is axing the polo shirts and cargo pants.
Starting this fall the utilitarian uniform is no longer allowed on the job.
“Emotions ran the gamut, from anger to disappointment to people
saying why is this being done,” said Ken Crane, V.P. of the Phoenix Law
Enforcement Association or PLEA.
Crane disagrees with the chief's decision.
The top brass wants to cut down on officer impersonation.
Something the chief said has been a problem in the past.
“We kind of see that as frankly a bit as a straw-man argument. All of officers took a little offense to that,” said Crane.
Crane said all of the uniforms can be impersonated, even the traditional uniform preferred by the chief.
The chief wouldn't go on camera with 3TV, but a department spokesman did.
Sergeant Trent Crump said the department made it too easy for people
to impersonate the uniform with the black cargo pants and black t-shirt.
Crump said the traditional uniform unites the department and the
polyester blend look is easier for community members to identify.
“As you know Arizona is known for its hot summers and when you're out
there pounding a beat for 10 hours in 110-115 heat, personal comfort
becomes a big deal,” argued Crane.
Crump said Phoenix police officers have worn the traditional uniform
for decades and most of the officers at the South precinct chose to wear
the uniform daily.
“I can't say that's an argument that's going to change his (the chief’s) decision on this,” said Crump.
The utilitarian uniform has been around for 15 years.
Crane said the cargo pants and the polo top offer comfort on the job.
“We have guys that part of their job is to chase bad guys down
alleys, jump fences, sometimes get in fights with suspects, that's
probably a better uniform to do that in,” said Crane.
According to Crump, uniformity is meant to boost morale.
“They're saying the morale is already been kind of low and this puts it even lower,” argued Crane.
The new uniform policy goes into affect beginning this October.
Union leaders hope the chief will change his decision and sit down with them to discuss different options.
http://www.azfamily.com/news/Some-Phoenix-police-officers-upset-with-new-chiefs-decision-about-uniforms--163785986.html
A Phoenix police officer who is also a Marine Reservist and recently back from a combat tour in Afghanistan has been arrested on charges of assaulting his wife and discharging a firearm.
A Casa Grande police spokesman said that Armando Ramirez was arrested Saturday and booked into the Pinal County Jail on one count of aggravated assault/domestic violence, one count of disorderly conduct with a weapon and one count of unlawful discharge of a weapon.
No one was injured by the gunshot, the spokesman said.
A Phoenix police spokesman, Sgt. Trent Crump, said Tuesday that Ramirez, 37, is a five-year member of the force. He also said Ramirez had previously served 10 years in the Marines and since joining the Phoenix police has done a combat tour in Iraq and a recent seven-month stint in Afghanistan.
Crump said Ramirez had resumed duties in the South Mountain Precinct on Dec. 5.
Ramirez has been placed on paid administrative leave and assigned to his home by the Professional Standards Bureau until an investigation is completed, the spokesman added.
Crump said he had spoken on the telephone with Ramirez.
"He said to me that he loves his family very much and is going to do everything possible to make this right,'' he said.
Crump said that "appropriate action'' will be taken by the Police Department, "when the facts of the case are known and have been reviewed.''
The Phoenix police officer who last year was involved in an incident with a Phoenix City Council member is now being investigated for an alleged assault, a police spokesman said Wednesday.
Sgt. Trent Crump said Officer Brian Authement was involved in a Jan. 13 incident "on a sports field and between two participants" in Phoenix. Crump said that while the incident is under investigation by the department's Special Investigations Detail, Authement will be placed in a "non-enforcement position."
"He'll be on a desk while we look into this," Crump said.
Authement last March was involved in an incident at a house fire in which he reportedly threw Phoenix Councilman Michael Johnson, the city's only African-American council member, to the ground and handcuffed him. Johnson at the time claimed civil-rights abuses. The officer claimed Johnson assaulted him.
Johnson and Authement have since resolved their disagreement, ending criminal and internal investigations into the matter.
Crump said that Authement has worked for the Police Department for just under three years. His current assignment is in the Squaw Peak Precinct.
The recent very suspicious death of Phoenix police Sgt. Sean Drenth (as yet unsolved) and October's outrageous murder of unarmed Phoenix resident Daniel Rodriguez in his own home by Officer Richard Chrisman provides me an opportunity to revisit some of the points I made in an article I wrote a few years ago called "Officer Down: The Media and Cop-Killings". In that piece, I pointed out how when an officer is killed in the line of duty, in general no investigation into the officer's record or character is permitted, because to do so would put into question the religious nature of this society's attitudes (and especially those of the media institutions) towards the police.
Dead cops are treated like little dead angels -- heroes, pure of heart and motive, who meet their tragic end too soon and in defense of the smallest among us. It's as if every cop dies rescuing an old lady from a house on fire, a box of kittens under one arm and a guilty-faced arsonist firmly gripped by the collar in the other. Justice served!
A common attack lobbed at those who dare criticize the cops and their role in society is that, despite one's lack of faith in the oft-touted immaculateness of the paladin in blue, "They'd protect you, too, even though you hate them." Of course, those of us who have seen their brutality liberally meted out in person know better. For instance, one reason most Americans have never been clubbed by a cop is because they've never been to a protest, not because cops don't beat people at protests. Likewise, middle class white people generalize their at worst mildly annoying experiences with ticket-issuing cops to everyone else, and therefore remain baffled each and every time a black kid is dragged from a car and beaten by one of them.
The coverage given to cops, and the heaps of posthumous praise piled on them, is rivaled but not surpassed, only by the attention given to dead soldiers. Perceived disparagers of the troops or their mission are counseled that they fight for our right to dissent, even if not the rights of those they invade and torture (although their defenders rarely even concede that much). And as with cops, only the most superficial investigations into their mission is countenanced. They do violence in far off villages so that we can be free, the logic goes. Not to protect and advance the interests of the capitalist and political class. No, nothing so crass, to be sure. In the common parlance, all enemies of the military are Hitler or terrorists with ticking time bombs. Of the cop, their targets are child molesters, murderers and rapists. And all critics of the police and ("our") soldiers are appeasers, ingrates or apologists for the above listed menagerie of the foes of honest humanity. Or Reds. Now we start to get to the crux of it, don't we?
When a cop dies, freeways are shut down, like the 101 in the north Valley was for Drenth's corpse and it's accompanying tearful and politically opportunistic entourage. Traffic is diverted, local politicians and police officials are given free reign to praise the officer in the media without suffering the cruel editor's snips and cuts. Sometimes the media covers the funeral procession live. Flags are lowered to half-staff. Again, just like soldiers. Indeed, the willingness of capitalist society to shut down its holy arteries of commerce to venerate its fallen protectors reveals their true purpose. But we already knew that.
Which again brings me to the case of Sgt. Drenth, Officer Chrisman and a host of other officers in the South Mountain Precinct of the Phoenix Police Department. I can't think of another time when the sheer force of scandal has compelled onto the public discourse the question of police sainthood. Or at least it should. In a way we have to count ourselves lucky at the odd convergence of circumstances that now provides us the opportunity to interrogate again the question of police and the way they are held up in society.
Called on a domestic disturbance between Daniel Rodriguez and his mother, which was over by the time he arrived, Officer Chrisman barged into Rodriguez's mobile home, put his service weapon to Rodriguez's head, shot his dog and then, eventually, opened fire on Rodriguez himself as he attempted to leave the trailer with his bike. "I don't need a warrant," he is reported to have said in response to Rodriguez's protestations. The act so outraged his partner, Sergio Virgillo, who was present when it happened (which says a lot, as we'll see later) that he broke the blue code of silence and denounced Chrisman to investigators.
Still, the police union ran to his support, paying his $150,000 bail with union dues. Phoenix Law Enforcement Association (PLEA) President Mark Spencer, a notorious anti-immigrant activist and right-wing Christian, showed up in the courtroom for Chrisman's initial appearance wearing a "We Support Officer Richard Chrisman" t-shirt. Initially and reluctantly, the state only charged Officer Chrisman with aggravated assault and animal cruelty.
Public outrage and a series of protests, which went on for a week, eventually compelled the outgoing County Attorney Rick Romley to charge Chrisman with second-degree murder. Stating his overall support for the police, and the defense of the bad apple myth of policing, Romley was careful to reassure the cops that his issuing of the new charge wasn't a sign of his straying from the fold. "But we as citizens put our trust and our lives in their hands, and when one violates and abuses that trust, we must hold them accountable to the community for that breach," he told the press.
An interesting side note, last year following the anti-Joe Arpaio march, the Phoenix New Times reacted with a vengeance worthy of a puritanical witchhunt to the Dine', O'odham, Anarchist Bloc's assertion that the Phoenix Police were as bad, if not worse in many ways, than the Sheriff's Department. After all, the PPD is responsible for more deportations than Sheriff Joe, hands down. The immigrant movement here had put a lot of faith in the PPD as the heroes of their anti-Joe campaign and would brook no criticism of their saviors -- even when PPD deliberately and without provocation charged their horses into a mixed age crowd, trampling people and pepper spraying indiscriminately. Interestingly, several of those arrested, including one for throwing a water bottle at heavily armed police during the melee, among other complaints, were charged with the same crime as was Chrisman initially, who is alleged to have murdered an unarmed man.
Indeed, the press, especially the New Times, is directly responsible in no uncertain terms for the charges filed against anarchists following that event and the fact that our comrades continue to face prosecution (with one, Grace, having just been released after serving a month in Joe's jail as a result of the state's blackmail operation). So, it's with some chagrin that I note that, almost a year later, the New Times has come to the startling conclusion that, in fact, the PPD is as rife with abuse and corruption as the MCSO. Better late than never, I suppose, but it would be nice if anarchists got some credit for saying it first and didn't have to suffer alone the consequences of standing up against such nonsense. But I suppose that was a different PPD that attacked the march last January, right?
So, let's get back to Chrisman. A little digging, the result I'm sure of the pure monstrosity of his actions and the fact that he is a living as opposed to dead cop (of whom not a bad word would be permitted), revealed something interesting. Chrisman was on something called the "Brady List". That list, which can be viewed here, is composed of officers who have been singled out for acts of dishonesty while on the job. In Chrisman's case, the black mark came when he was observed by a couple of security guards on camera harassing a homeless woman and planting a crack pipe on her.
What was he doing with a crack pipe, you may wonder? Maybe ask the fine officers of the New Orleans Police Department who, it has been revealed recently, routinely carried with them what they used to refer to as a "ham sandwich" -- i.e., an untraceable pistol to plant in case an officer involved shooting revealed no weapon on the victim. Remarkably in the case of Chrisman we have a case here where security guards, generally power hungry and drooling sycophants to the police that they hope one day themselves to be, were so outraged by his behavior that they turned him in. Quite astounding, really. It makes you wonder what his uncontroversial activity was like, doesn't it?
But that outrage is not a rare exception, it turns out. It has since been revealed that the head of the Phoenix Police Department's internal investigation squad was himself on the Brady List! And do you know what else? Revelations from a three year long investigation into the false billing of overtime by officers in the PPD has revealed a ring of fraud within the department, in which what has been reported to be as many as 25 officers in the South Mountain Precinct, aided by sympathetic bosses, routinely billed for overtime that never happened, padding their already inflated wages. Three officers have been charged with serious felonies as a result, probably just sacrificial lambs to cover up whatever else has been going on.
But something interesting came to light as a result of this investigation that really bears remarking on: according to the reports coming out now, if Sgt. Sean Drenth was still alive, he would have been indicted as well. Which would make the officer over which the city elite so recently poured out it's glycerin tears, the latest fallen hero in a long line of since-beatified saints, just another corrupt cop in a corrupt department.
To make this connection even more clear, Officer Chrisman has been reported to be among those under investigation as well, putting our fallen angel Sgt. Drenth a mere one degree of separation, if not a co-conspirator, with alleged murderer Chrisman in the overtime scam. But, to be fair, one degree is in fact too far, since the accused mastermind of the operation, Officer Contreras (recently retired under "multiple misconduct investigations"), actually played in a band with Drenth. The fact that Contreras comes from a long-time Phoenix police family certainly casts more doubt on the reputation of the department and, of course, any future or past fallen officers from that particular cesspool in South Mountain, mired as it is now in public scandal and accusations of racism. Hero cops indeed!
In this new era of austerity, and despite the overwhelmingly obvious corrupt and violent nature of our co-called "protectors", where we are reminded daily that teachers and other public employees (amongst the last remaining pathways to decent wages in this country) must face the imposed precarity of regular review of their qualifications and suffer the constant threat of dismissal, it's interesting that we have heard no such demands when it comes to the police. As a friend of mine recently remarked to a cop on the light rail, "They'd let children starve before they didn't pay you."
And make no mistake, when those children are starving, and you reach for that loaf of bread to tuck under your now-ill-fitting clothing, it will be one of these officers, not Drenth thankfully, but one of his corrupt, roid-raging and hair-trigger comrades, that intervenes to keep that food from their mouths. These are the saints of our time? Or is it perhaps something else?
I won't go into it in depth again, because I already did that in "Officer Down", but suffice it to say that, if as we've seen above, the cops aren't a bunch of angels protecting us from the thugs and thieves that would otherwise plague good people, then something else must be going on. At the least, as it would be a mark of insanity to defend the mainstream image of the police officer, it also makes no sense to be shocked that jobs that offer largely unaccountable power over others and unsupervised opportunities for theft and bullying in fact attract people interested in acting like a bunch of cowboy jerks that take advantage of people, push them around, plant drugs and steal (just to begin a very long list). In that sense, the image of the police officer is perfect cover for them. But beyond that, of course, we have the particular role of the police as a system in the US. Born out of the slave patrols in the South, the anti-Mexican militias in the Southwest, and the anti-worker thugs that broke up strikes, the legacy of the police remains with us to this day, defending the wealth and power of the elite first, of the settler second and of everyone (or no one) else third, except perhaps by accident or convenience. Let's not parse words or dance around the issue: the thin blue line in fact defends capitalism and the state from it's victims, ensuring that people like us don't get out of line and that the rich and their bureaucratic buddies in the government stay safe, warm and well-fed in their mansions and downtown penthouses. The cops keep the money rolling in! They reinforce white supremacy, protecting some from the worst excesses of capitalist and bureaucratic power in exchange for their acquiescence in the hyper-domination of the rest of society.
The police, far from the angelic agents of our deliverance from evil, are in fact a hallmark and the bulwark of a deeply unequal class society, in which power is exercised against the will and against the interests of the vast majority of the population. Each time one falls should be a time for celebration, not mourning, for it brings us a little bit closer to a world without cops, a world without inequality.
In Spain during the revolution the workers and peasants, so infuriated at the apologists for the monarchy and feudalism, dug up the rotting corpses of the priests and nuns that had conjured the myths of their age -- the lies that sought to keep the farmer and the factory worker in his or her place, bowing always to the appropriate authority figure. Perhaps we can think of counterparts in our own society, who deserve similar tribute, should the time come. So, please, weep no more over the dead cop than the dead slave patroller, or the dead Pinkerton. No rose on the grave, but who's got a shovel?
Forensic efforts to link DNA evidence collected at the scene of Phoenix police Sgt. Sean Drenth's fatal shooting have yielded no results, according to investigators who believe additional analyses could take several more months.
More than 10 weeks ago Drenth was found dead Oct. 18 alongside his patrol vehicle in a line-of-duty tragedy that has baffled detectives who have yet to confirm if Drenth was murder or if he committed suicide.
As the investigation continued earlier this month, Drenth was implicated in an off-duty work scandal reviewed by the Arizona Attorney General's Office. The case led to felony charges against three current Phoenix police officers and a former officer.
Phoenix police leaders said Drenth could have also faced felony charges because the sergeant's alleged misconduct would have met the criteria for grand-jury consideration. He was among the officers accused of receiving money for off-duty security work they didn't perform.
Drenth, a longtime south Phoenix patrolman, was found dead around the time Phoenix learned about the Attorney General's Office investigation.
Officers investigated as part of the Attorney General's Office probe were required to submit DNA samples for the Drenth homicide investigation.
On Tuesday, Phoenix police Sgt. Trent Crump announced that investigators have failed to make a link between DNA samples and evidence collected from the scene of Drenth's death.
"The overall processing of the evidence and comparative analysis is not complete and is expected to take several months," Crump wrote in an e-mail. "We will continue working on the case until all leads have been exhausted."
The Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office has not yet released Drenth's completed death investigation. Reports take as long as three months, meaning that an official record would likely be released by Jan. 18.
PHOENIX - A jury has indicted three current and one former member of the Phoenix Police Department on felony theft charges -- and had Sgt. Sean Drenth still lived -- he would be indicted too.
According to the indictment, officers in the South Mountain Precinct billed businesses for off-duty work they allegedly did not do.
This is a story we've been following for weeks now.
It involves a troubled apartment complex in south Phoenix. One of the alleged businesses, Cotton Center Townhomes, suffered the largest hit -- involving a security job contracted with the Phoenix Police Department by three homeowners associations to help reduce crime in the area.
The officers allegedly billed the business for off-duty security work that was never performed. All of the officers work or worked at the South Mountain precinct.
Former Officer George Emil Contreras was indicted on four felony counts, including fraud and theft. Current Officers, Steven Peck, Aaron Lentz and Sgt. Benjamin Sywarungsymun were also indicted on theft charges related to off-duty work. Contreras resigned shortly after the investigation started, just two years away from being able to retire with his full pension.
Contreras is alleged to have committed thefts in excess of $9,000, Lentz $2,000, Sywarungsymun $1,800 and Peck $1,700. According to the indictment, total losses are in excess of $16,000.
During a 3:30 p.m. press conference, Public Safety Manager Jack Harris said that an additional 25 officers were investigated. Those officers did not rise to the level of charging by the Attorney General's Office, but will be turned over the Professional Standards Bureau for a misconduct review. The officers' future with the department will be decided once their investigation concludes.
Sgt. Sean Drenth was part of the investigation and would've met the AG's office's criteria for a criminal charge, Public Safety Manager Jack Harris said. He said that if Drenth had not been deceased, he would be facing a felony indictment.
Sgt. Drenth was killed one month ago and no arrests have been made in the case -- his death is being investigated as a homicide but suicide has not been ruled out.
"I don't know if he knew he was facing indictment, but he knew that he was part of the investigation because all of the employees had been interviewed."
Harris also added that Officer Richard Chrisman is one of the 25 officers being investigated for misconduct -- but the AG's office determined his actions did not rise to the level of a crime. Chrisman has been charged with murder in the death of a suspect.
In spite of the announcement, Harris defended his department largely, saying these bad apples do not represent his department as a whole.
"It's criminal in some cases, it's misconduct, but it's not corruption in the traditional sense... so painting the Phoenix Police department as a corrupt agency is not fair," Harris said. "If we were a corrupt organization I wouldn't be telling you what's going on. I wouldn't be standing up here and explaining to you our position on what has occurred."
Since this came to light, there's been a big shake-up at the precinct with a group of officers being reassigned. Harris also said he will be reviewing the off-duty police officer security work program. The involved employees are suspended from performing off-duty work as of now.
This can't be emphasized enough, this is a story on the longtime partner of the drug planting, corrupt, and murderous cop Richard Chrisman, who is now facing murder charges. This story is not about an aberration in the behavior of the police, this is the norm.
PHOENIX – A Phoenix police officer is in trouble for his personal license plate.
Police say they saw the license plate when Officer Austin Lewis responded to a crime scene while working off-duty at a nearby QuikTrip and killed a man.
Police say the killing was justified because that suspect had a gun.
The officer-involved shooting took place Oct. 17. Officer Lewis, a 9-year veteran, shot and killed the suspect after police say the man pulled out a gun.
Sgt. Steve Martos, with Phoenix police, says, “That individual failed to obey commands and reached into his waistband where he retrieved a handgun and pointed that handgun at officers.”
The license plate on Lewis’ personal plate read 451 M ALL. In police code, 451 means murder so the plate could be read as “Murder M’All.”
Police would not comment on the officer’s license plate or what it means but say the Professional Standards Bureau is investigating.
Lewis’ frequent partner, Officer Richard Chrisman, was arrested for murder on Oct. 5. He stands accused of murdering an unarmed man in South Phoenix. Both officers work out of the South Mountain precinct.
Lewis did not want to talk to 3TV about his license plate but says they have expired and he has put a different plate on his truck.
Phoenix police on Thursday confirmed that internal-affairs detectives have been investigating off-duty misconduct within South Mountain Precinct since 2007.
The complex investigation is focused on officers' off-duty security work - such as the assignments guarding nightclubs or working crowd control at parades or football games in which they earn extra money, Phoenix police Sgt. Trent Crump said.
Crump said the department's Professional Standards Bureau considers the investigation "still pending and still open." He declined to address specifics other than that detectives are looking into the actions of officers assigned to off-duty assignments in south Phoenix, rather than solely focusing on officers stationed at South Mountain Precinct.
Phoenix officers are authorized by the department to work off-duty security in uniform. They are also required to follow department policy.
Cmdr. Chuck Miiller, who oversees the police department's Public Affairs Bureau, said Friday that the recent reassignment of the South Mountain Precinct commander and several lieutenants was unconnected to the ongoing internal-affairs investigation into off-duty misconduct by officers.
Miiller said the reassignment of Cmdr. Jeff Alexander, who was replaced three weeks ago by Cmdr. Chris Crockett, and several lieuterants -- including Lts. Mark Tallman and Chris Moore of the Ahwatukee substation -- were part of a separate decision made by the department's chiefs to restructure leadership in the precinct.
Tallman and Moore will be replaced by Lt. Matt Giordano, also of Public Affairs Bureau, and Lt. Russ Frederiksen.
Republic reporter Cathryn Creno contributed to this report.
A Maricopa County grand jury has indicted a Phoenix police officer on a second-degree murder charge in the shooting of an unarmed man in south Phoenix on Oct. 5.
Officer Richard Chrisman was also charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and cruelty to animals.
Interim Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley and Phoenix Public Safety Manager Jack Harris announced the indictment at a news conference Thursday.
"I sincerely believe in these good men and women, and I believe that their example epitomizes all that is good about public safety in our communities today," Romley said. "But we as citizens put our trust and our lives in their hands, and when one abuses and violates that trust, we must hold them accountable to the community for that breach."
When asked why it took more than a week to obtain the murder charges, Harris said, "We make decisions based on the facts of the investigation, not rumors, not people being upset. We base them on facts."
Harris said he understood outrage in the community over the shooting of Frank Rodriguez, 29.
"I think the community should be angry," Harris said. "They should be upset. If it were my neighbor, I would be angry as well."
Later in the day, Elvira Fernandez, Rodriguez's mother, said at a separate news conference at her lawyer's office that when she heard about the new charges against Chrisman, "I thought, finally, thank God somebody heard us."
Fernandez said her son "didn't even know I called 911. I was emotional. I thought the police would have a talk with him. I told them, 'Don't hurt my son, just talk to him.' "
She said she heard "banging on the door when they broke it down and I heard my son screaming."
Harris said that he would meet with Chrisman next week to initiate termination procedures against the officer.
Harris and Romley also released information about Chrisman that placed him on the "Brady" list, named for a court case regarding police officers who had committed acts that called their judgment into question.
In 2005, Chrisman was one of four police officers caught on surveillance video planting a drug pipe on a mentally challenged homeless woman as a joke. In the video, Chrisman can be seen placing something in the hand of a police officer who then pretends to take it out of the woman's dress. The woman was not charged with drug offenses.
Chrisman was disciplined and suspended for one day. His name remained on the Brady list.
Craig Mehrens, Chrisman's attorney, said the videotaped incident "has nothing to do with (Chrisman's) use of force. Rick is selectively releasing things to bolster his case."
Shortly after noon on Oct. 5, Chrisman, 36, and Officer Sergio Virgillo went to the south Phoenix trailer home of Rodriguez's mother. Fernandez had called 911 because she had been arguing with Rodriguez and she was afraid he would assault her.
Rodriguez asked to see a warrant when the officers entered the home, and Chrisman reportedly put his gun to Rodriguez's head and told him he didn't need a warrant, according to court documents. The documents went on to say that both officers fired their stun guns against Rodriguez. Then Chrisman sprayed him with pepper spray and shot a young dog barking in the living room.
Virgillo told investigators the dog was not threatening them and he saw no reason why Chrisman would shoot it. The suspect asked why Chrisman had shot his dog, and Virgillo said he tried to calm Rodriguez down and talk him into coming outside.
Rodriguez told the officers he was leaving with his bicycle, but Virgillo moved to block the door and Chrisman began struggling with Rodriguez over the handlebars.
Chrisman then reportedly pulled out his handgun and shot Rodriguez more than once. Rodriguez died at the scene.
Chrisman was arrested about five hours after the shooting and was freed on bail. He was not rearrested after the indictment.
Mehrens, who successfully defended a Chandler police officer who shot a woman to death at a pharmacy drive-up window in 2002, claims that the Rodriguez shooting was justified.
Mehrens sent a letter to Deputy County Attorney Juan Martinez, who will handle the Chrisman case, asking him to consider the opinion of an expert on police officer use of force.
"Nobody called for my expert's opinion," Mehrens told The Arizona Republic. "You mean the prosecutor is not supposed to look at both sides? I'd have a great case with a fair prosecutor."
Attorneys for Rodriguez's parents attended Thursday morning's news conference. Michael Manning, who represents Rodriguez's father, said he and the father were pleased by Chrisman's indictment, calling the inquiry into the shooting "a brave and courageous investigation."
Hispanic community activist Lydia Guzman said, "I'm pleased to see that the police department has been transparent in every stage of the investigation. I appreciate the police officer who came forward and I worry about any retaliation he may suffer."
