Pinal County Lt. leaves nasty message on talk show host's phone

PINAL COUNTY, Ariz. -- An early morning radio talk show has sparked questions about the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office and the possibility that it's abusing its power.

The questions came after a PCSO Lieutenant called conservative talk show host Barry Young’s personal cell phone and left a nasty voicemail.

Part of the voicemail said, “Hey man I know you gotta’ spin your (explicative) to make it sound cool. Take care."

The cursing caller telephoned Young after hearing the host rant about PCSO on Friday.
Young accused the Sheriff’s Office on-air of denying him an interview with supervisor Jennifer Foster.

Foster took the now famous photo in New York of a cop giving a pair of boots to a homeless man.
Listeners wanted to know how the Lieutenant got access to Young's personal cell phone number.
“But if this guy really went into a data base to get Barry's phone number that's serious,” said show producer Andrew Babinski.

Babinski said Young and Sheriff Paul Babeu's professional relationship changed following the sheriff’s shirtless photo scandal.

“Ever since then we like to have fun,” Babinski said while talking about the sheriff on their show.
Even though Foster's done several interviews across the country, including one with 3TV, Babinski suspects Young's show was blacklisted because of on-air Babeu banter.

Tim Gaffney with PCSO said that's just not true.

“There's no tension there at all,” said Gaffney.

So how did the Lieutenant get Young's personal cell phone number?

Callers questioned if the lawman abused his power and got it through a county data base.

“Mr. Young has given me his cell phone number in the past. I gave out that number. And that’s the number that he called. That’s how he got it. There is no data base that has Mr. Young's cell phone number,” said Gaffney.

The PCSO spokesperson also said he has spoken to KFYI executives.

Gaffney said both offices agree this has been one big misunderstanding that stemmed from a lack of communication.

We reached out to KFYI to confirm this and were told the station has no comment.

http://www.azfamily.com/news/pinal-county-lt-leaves-nasty-message-on-talk-show-hosts-phone-181608311.html

Another police creeper: Drunk Pinal deputy gets arrested after punching man who defended his female friend from drunk cop's unwanted advances

Mueller is on the left, standing next to Pinal County Sheriff Babeu

A Pinal County sheriff’s deputy tapped to be a fill-in department spokesman is fighting a disorderly-conduct charge after an off-duty incident outside a Tempe bar where, police say, he punched another patron.

Richard “Hank” Mueller, 30, was put on paid administrative leave Oct. 22 pending an internal investigation and is expected to remain on leave through at least Dec. 14. He is scheduled for a Nov. 28 hearing on the misdemeanor charge in Tempe Municipal Court.

According to Tempe police records released this week, surveillance video captured Mueller and another man in a heated exchange that resulted in Mueller punching the man in the face about 2:30 a.m. on Oct. 12. The victim told police he was intervening for a female friend who was getting unwanted attention from Mueller at the Firehouse, a bar and grill at University Drive and Mill Avenue.

Police said there was “no clear assault” because Mueller may have been defending himself. According to the report, video showed Mueller holding the man at arm’s length before the punch. The man — who told police he slapped Mueller’s hand away because he didn’t like to be touched — was not charged in the incident.

The Firehouse manager told police that Mueller had been causing problems throughout the night by taunting and threatening the bar security guards. One female employee complained that Mueller was “creeping her out,” according to the police report.

Firehouse employees called 911 after one confrontation, but police were not dispatched because Mueller appeared to have left. They called police a second time after the fight in the alley.

In their reports, officers described Mueller as being intoxicated and irrational. None of them identified Mueller as a Pinal County sheriff’s deputy or a law-enforcement officer.

Mueller was cited and released after promising to appear in court. It was not clear whether Mueller drove away, but the report indicated he was advised to get a ride home.

Mueller declined to comment when reached by phone Friday.

He was one of several Pinal sheriff’s employees who appeared in a commercial supporting Sheriff Paul Babeu’s candidacy for U.S. House, a race Babeu left in May to run for re-election.

Mueller was hired as a deputy in January 2009, the month Babeu first took office. Before joining the Sheriff’s Office, Mueller had been a detention officer with the Chandler Police Department — Babeu’s former employer, from which he drew several members of his command staff — and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.

Mueller graduated at the top of his class from the police academy. A review of his personnel file and disciplinary records revealed multiple blemishes. In one performance review, Mueller’s supervisor said the deputy “didn’t always (use) good tact, good judgment and common sense to resolve conflict (and) at times it may escalate out of control. Mueller still needs to work on this as he generates quite a few complaints when it comes to dealing with calls for service.”

His judgment was also questioned in an incident that began as a traffic stop and escalated to the forced entry and warrantless search of an apartment. In the incident, Mueller and at least one other officer held the occupants at gunpoint.

Mueller said he had kicked in the door because he and another officer thought they smelled marijuana. Mueller told internal-affairs detectives that he believed the driver who ran from him fled into the apartment but later admitted he wasn’t sure.

His patrol commander recommended Mueller serve an 80-hour suspension without pay.

“This shows a clear lack of understanding (of) PCSO policy, constitutional rights and established case law on Deputy Mueller’s part,” the supervisor wrote. “He became over zealous and lost his ability to make sound judgment. This lack of judgment placed the citizens of Pinal County, the other deputies and officer working with him in harm’s way, while placing the Sheriff’s Office in a position of great risk and liability.”

Chief Deputy Steve Henry, however, ordered Mueller to take 20 hours of unpaid leave and required him to take a class on search and seizure. He cited Mueller’s inexperience and praised him for his “honesty and virtue” in reporting the incident to his supervisor.

“It is evident there would have never been an investigation without this virtuous act,” Henry wrote.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/pinal/articles/20121116pinal-deputy-faces-charge-bar-fight.html

Pinal County deputy in desert shootout fired over comments

Disgraced Pinal County deputy Louie Puroll with Pinal County sheriff Paul Babeau

A Pinal County Sheriff's deputy who purportedly was wounded in a gun battle with drug smugglers last year has been fired for making false statements to a journalist.

In a news release, the Sheriff's Office said Deputy Louie Puroll was terminated for 10 violations of departmental policy governing ethics violations, incompetence and truthfulness.

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu said in the statement that he stood by Puroll's controversial claim of being in an April shootout because the account was supported by evidence. However, Babeu said, comments made by the deputy to a Phoenix New Times reporter "brought discredit to himself and the men and women representing our sworn law enforcement profession."

Puroll suffered a minor flesh wound in a shootout that propelled him and Babeu into the national media spotlight in the heat of public debate over border security and Arizona's tough immigration law known as Senate Bill 1070.

After the incident, numerous law enforcement experts and others contended that Puroll fabricated the entire incident based on physical evidence and inconsistencies in his story. Babeu stood behind the deputy's account, and a Pinal County Sheriff's investigation concluded that the incident was authentic.

Puroll was suspended last year for comments he made to New Times.

In one interview, he told the newspaper that he had been approached by Mexican cartel members and asked to help them. In another, he told reporter Paul Rubin that a friend had offered to murder Rubin in retaliation for critical news stories.

Puroll, a search-and-rescue deputy with 14 years on the force, was placed under investigation because he had never reported those matters to his superiors or to other law enforcement.

Despite Puroll's questionable comments in the media, Babeu has maintained that the deputy's shootout with smugglers was validated by evidence.

Puroll could not be reached for comment.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/01/05/20110105pinal-county-deputy-comments-investigation.html

Ex-Chandler officer Dan Lovelace, at center of Florence prison abuse probe

A former Chandler cop now working as a Pinal County detention officer is under internal investigation after using pepper spray on a detainee.

Dan Lovelace, who was at the center of two wrongful death suits that cost Chandler more than $4.6 million, was hired by the Sheriff's Office in mid-2009.

A Sheriff's Office statement said Lovelace used a "short burst of pepper spray" on an ICE detainee after he had defecated on the floor of a holding area and did not respond to detention officers' commands Dec. 11.

Lovelace has been transferred to another position within the department and does not have contact with inmates until the investigation is complete. Results are expected later this week.

The statement said the Professional Standards Unit reviews each use-of-force incident.

Lovelace shot and killed an Ahwatukee woman trying to fill a forged prescription at a Chandler drug store drive-through in 2002 while her toddler sat in the back seat. He was fired and charged with second-degree murder. A jury acquitted him, and in 2005 Lovelace fought unsuccessfully to get his job back.

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu -- a Chandler police officer and union leader before voters put him in office -- sat with supporters at some of those proceedings. In 2009, he hired Lovelace to work in a Florence jail.

Babeu in 2009 said the college-educated Lovelace was hired in May and completed an eight-week detention officer training course in Tucson where he was selected to speak to his graduating class.

He is working in the Pinal County Adult Detention Center in Florence, which houses up to 1,504 pretrial inmates, Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees, and individuals sentenced to county lockup. Corrections officers do not carry weapons, nor do they enforce the law, Babeu said.

The 2002 shooting death of Dawn Rae Nelson, 35, ended Lovelace's career on the Chandler force but many came to his defense. Two of the jurors who acquitted him of murder charges later befriended him and showed up at personnel hearings as Lovelace fought to get his job back.

A motorcycle officer at the time of shooting death, Lovelace also had been involved in a 2000 high-speed chase that killed a college student. He was given a letter of reprimand for not using his siren in the chase.

The city settled wrongful-death lawsuits in both cases and paid out more than $4.6 million.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/pinal/articles/2010/12/21/20101221pinal-lovelace-under-investigation.html