At this news, the deputies reportedly lost their steam. They seemed surprised. According to the complaint, they "immediately backed down and lowered their weapons. Mr. Nieto was let out of handcuffs."
After running Nieto Jr.'s name through their computer and finding no outstanding warrants, the deputies collected themselves and fled the scene without issuing citations. Nieto Jr. called 911 again and eventually filed a verbal complaint with a Phoenix police supervisor. Meraz also called 911 and was told that Deputies Cesar Brockman and Douglas Beeks were among those at the scene.
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The Sheriff's Office does not allege Meraz or Nieto Jr. did anything wrong. Yet when law officers handcuff and pull guns on people who do nothing wrong, there ought to be a report made.
In response to legal requests for public records made by New Times, the Sheriff's Office supposedly combed through its files for any sign that it had duly recorded the traffic stop. After weeks of waiting, New Times was provided with a call-history document supposedly related to the stop. The document referenced an unrelated stop and contains no mention of Nieto Jr., Meraz, their vehicle, or anything resembling what can be heard on the 911 recordings.
Though Meraz had obtained the names of three deputies who participated in the debacle, not one of them wrote up the incident in a report, according to the Sheriff's Office.
At a pro-immigrant rally a few days later, Nieto Sr. spread word that he was looking for a good lawyer, and the ACLU soon called. Now the siblings are part of a high-profile lawsuit that's been wending its way through the legal system for more than a year. The siblings aren't asking for a penny in their case — they just want Arpaio to stop racially profiling people.
In October, ACLU lawyers discovered that the Sheriff's Office has been systematically destroying records related to its much-publicized sweeps — and that the destruction continued long after lawyers and the media had requested the records. Thousands of notes and statistics related to the crime sweeps thought to contain evidence of racial profiling are now gone.
Last month, U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow ordered the destruction of documents to end. But the damage has been done. Whether records related to the March 28 traffic stop of Nieto Jr. and Meraz ever existed, they have probably been shredded by now.
Yet if the only available evidence are the 911 tapes and witnesses statements, then Nieto Jr. and Meraz should win their argument by default.