Course the fundraiser was for one of their own. The Phoenix Police Department have been rivaling Arapaio for the most negative and frequent publicity in the state. That’s hard to do, but they are giving him a run for his money.
The Phoenix Law Enforcement Association held a fundraiser Thursday night amid protesters for a former police officer facing second-degree murder charges.
Officer Rich Chrisman is charged with shooting and killing Danny Rodriguez during a domestic disturbance call last October.
PLEA spokesman Joe Clure said Chrisman needs the help to support his family.
"The fact that Chrisman is being supported by his officers should not be a surprise, because he's presumed innocent until proven otherwise," answered Clure.
"I think that it's disgusting that they would endorse a murderer," said protester Wana Doe.
"There's two witnesses. The mother saw it and also his fellow officer. Sounds pretty hands down. That's why they charged him with second-degree murder and that's why we're here today," Doe said.
PLEA representatives said they're confident the charges will be dropped and that they know a lot of things the general public doesn't.
They wouldn't share that information with CBS 5 News.
Danny Rodriguez's mother couldn't comment on camera but called the fundraiser "immoral."
http://www.kpho.com/...
You can read the police report for yourself, here.
Virgillo, Chrisman’s partner at the time of the incident, told investigators there was no reason for Chrisman to shoot Rodriguez and his dog. Neither were a serious threat to either officer, according to Virgillo. Chrisman currently faces charges of second-degree murder, animal cruelty, and aggravated assault over the incident.
Rodriguez's mother recently filed a notice of claim with the City of Phoenix for $30 million.
When the shooting became news Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley revealed a videotape showing Chrisman planting a crack pipe on a mentally-ill homeless woman, a stunt that landed Chrisman on the MCAO's Brady list.
He should have been fired then, but he was given a day's suspension instead. His lawyer wrote an oped defending the BBQ. But he didn't sign his name.
Craig Mehrens, lawyer of Chrisman wrote in an oped defends PLEA's all-day BBQ/fundraiser today on behalf of his client, fired killer-cop Richard Chrisman. The former Phoenix police officer faces charges of second degree murder, animal cruelty, and aggravated assault in the October 5 death of unarmed south Phoenix resident Daniel Rodriguez, and the offing of Rodriguez's dog.
However, Mehrens did not sign the op-ed. Though he does make references to being Chandler cop Dan Lovelace's mouthpiece back in the day, which Mehrens was.
Rather, what's striking about the opinion piece is that Mehrens essentially admits that there are plenty of cops and members of the public who're ticked off with PLEA doing a cookout charity event for Chrisman.
Check this passage out:
Recently many of you, your wives, your loved ones, and others in the community have questioned how PLEA could support Rich; from the start; but now that he is fired, the rhetoric has escalated to degrees that really frighten me. Rich is only charged; nothing more. He is presumed innocent under the law and he should be presumed innocent by you, its citizens.
Since PLEA announced that it was holding a BBQ to support Rich, the public clamor has become even more contentious. Many people cannot understand why his Union would still support him, suggesting, I guess, that if the Police department fired him, he must be guilty; that the Brass must know what they are doing. If that were so, then there would be no need for unions in the country; we could just trust the brass to look out for the rank and file.
He compares Chrisman's case to that of Dan Lovelace, the Chandler motorcycle cop who was found not guilty on a second-degree murder charge for shooting a mom in 2002. The woman was in her car with her 14 month-old child.
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/...
In AZ there is always another good old boy to hire you, know matter what you do. It worked for Lovelace.
What Mehrens doesn't tell you, however, is that Lovelace's actions in this case and another incident cost the City of Chandler $4.6 million in lawsuit settlements.
Lovelace attempted to get his job back with Chandler, which had fired him following the incident with the mom. He was turned down. Transcripts from an internal affairs investigation revealed that Lovelace was remorseful over the shooting when interviewed a week afterward.
The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, of all places, turned down Lovelace's bid to become an unpaid reserve deputy. Lovelace finally found employment with the Pinal County Sheriff's Office when Sheriff Paul Babeu hired him as a detention officer.
Maybe PLEA's support of Chrisman has something to do with his being a member of the organization and Virgillo not.
Chrisman's a PLEA member, Virgillo is not, though PLEA technically represents both men under the union's Memorandum of Understanding with the city. PLEA helped Chrisman make bail, and PLEA President Mark Spencer and PLEA lobbyist Levi Bolton have tried to influence the Maricopa County Attorney's case against Chrisman.
Spencer and Bolton made contact with MCAO liaison Keith Manning, raising the issue of the Chrisman case with him. And 48 hours after the shooting, Spencer called a detective at the PPD's Drug Enforcement Bureau to dig up dirt on Virgillo and his wife. (Spencer refused to be interviewed by MCAO investigators over the matter.)
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/...
Then there is also Chrisman’s involvement in the PPD's off-duty scandal.
Three Phoenix police officers and a former patrolman were indicted Thursday after authorities said they pocketed thousands of dollars in an off-duty security scam at a low-income south Phoenix housing complex.
Twenty-five other Phoenix officers, including 15 from the South Mountain Precinct, are under internal review stemming from the same three-year investigation into whether officers providing off-duty security collected wages for work they didn't perform.
Also implicated in the investigation was Phoenix police Sgt. Sean Drenth, who last month was found shot to death alongside his patrol vehicle near the Capitol. Harris said Drenth knew he was under investigation. The police department wasn't aware that he was being investigated by the Attorney General's Office until the week of his death. Homicide detectives haven't determined the cause of his death.
Harris said Drenth could have faced felony charges because the sergeant's alleged misconduct would have met the criteria for grand-jury consideration.
"It is my understanding that had he not been deceased, he would have been referred to the grand jury for one of the felonies," Harris said during a Thursday news conference at Phoenix police headquarters.
Phoenix homicide investigators now are "well aware of the connection" between Drenth's death and his involvement in the off-duty misconduct investigation, Harris said.
http://www.azcentral.com/...
The cause of death still has not been determined in the Drenth case.
City officials honored more than 70 municipal employees who died over the last year. Phoenix police Sergeant Sean Drenth was not on the list.
Drenth's body was found shot to death near the State Capitol -- next to his police cruiser -- on October 18 of last year. He was on-duty at the time, but was out of contact with his precinct for about 45 minutes before the shooting.
The Phoenix P.D. has been fairly tight-lipped about the investigation, and the medical examiner hasn't said whether it was a murder or a suicide, which is why Drenth's name was left off the memorial.
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/...
Phoenix has had two more officer involved killings in the last two days.
Phoenix police Thursday clarified why force was used in two incidents in which officers fatally shot two men in two days.
This, after the family of one of the men who was shot held a press conference and Domingo Chaparro, lamenting the death of his brother, said, "Phoenix has witnessed too many unarmed people killed by police ready to assassinate those who come between their sights."
A Police Department spokesman, Sgt. Trent Crump, said that, in fact, "We follow state law in the use of force. An officer can use deadly force when he reasonably believes that it is necessary to defend himself or a third person from what the officer believes to be the imminent use of deadly force."
Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/...
And although Phoenix really, really wanted the title of “the kidnapping capitol” their statistics have been called into question.
In independent panel formed to review whether Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris submitted inaccurate kidnapping statistics to the federal government held its first meeting Friday, and it will meet weekly until it delivers an interim report in early May.
City officials removed Harris from his position as head of the Phoenix Police Department. At that time, City Manager David Cavazos created the panel to seek answers to allegations that instances of kidnapping in Phoenix were inflated by the Police Department to increase the city's chances of winning federal stimulus money.
http://www.azcentral.com/...
No wonder Arpaio hasn’t got much press lately. With the PPD, the Fiesta Bowl Scandal and our new horrible, terrible, very bad budget, reporters can’t hardly keep up.