The Mesa Police Department has released more reports on its run-ins with state Senator Russell Pearce's son Joshua. A report I blogged about earlier today dealt with allegations concerning possible child abuse in a December 10, 2010 incident involving Joshua Pearce's infant daughter.
You can read that report, here. I've also reported previously on Joshua's previous conviction for extreme DUI, for which he caught five years probation. His baby son was in the vehicle with him at the time.
Of the new police reports, one deals with an alleged domestic violence incident from 2003, where Joshua and his girlfriend at the time traded blows. Joshua's girlfriend then was not his current wife Samantha, but a woman named Stephanie.
On October 5, 2005, Joshua Pearce was arrested in an incident where he allegedly fled police and drove through a red light. According to the report, this was after a fight at a Filiberto's with two Hispanic males. Joshua claimed he was attacked by the two men. One of the men told police Joshua attacked them first.
No racial slurs were exchanged, according to the report.
Joshua was booked on several charges: extreme DUI (his blood alcohol level was 0.15); unlawful flight from law enforcement; and assault. The Mesa cop found a glass pipe with residue in the car, and a urinalysis detected THC. According to one police officer, "Joshua said he smokes as much marijuana as he can get..."
I'm not clear on what the result of this incident was. I know that court documents made mention of this DUI, but I don't see a conviction for it in the court record, much less for the rest of the charges. Perhaps they were dropped. I do know that when Joshua was stopped in 2006, he was driving on a suspended license.
More troubling is an October 8, 2005 incident involving Samantha's son by another man, who was then two years old.
Mesa PD responded to a call from Banner Desert Hospital. The child's left femur was broken, there were abrasions on the child's face, bruises throughout the body, and a hematoma on the left side of the skull.
The officer's narrative described Samantha as having a "nonchalant" attitude. Samantha told the cop that she had left the child with an "old friend," one she had not seen for a long time named "Justin,"and that she had let Justin babysit the kid for her. She claimed Justin later called her at work to tell her that the two-year-old had fallen down a flight of stairs.
Justin then supposedly brought the child to Samantha's workplace, and Samantha transported the child to the hospital.
According to the report, Samantha did not know where Justin lived, his last name, or how to get in touch with him. She said her boyfriend Joshua Pearce gave the boy to Justin during a rendezvous at the local Circle K.
Joshua backed up Samantha's story to the Mesa police. The police pulled video from the Circle K for the day in question, but could find no evidence to corroborate Samantha's story.
I should point out that Russell Pearce has a son named Justin, but the police report does not mention him, nor is there any indication he was involved in any way.
Ultimately, the detective assigned to the case closed it, turning the information over to Child Protective Services.
The detective wrote,
"In conclusion I find that Samantha's explanations are suspect at best and Joshua's explanation of turning [the child] over to Justin then picking him up later is false. As it did not happen at the Circle K as Joshua described, per the videotape. Also [the child's] injuries are inconsistent with falling down a flight of concrete stairs.
"Because of this, I can only conclude that both Samantha and Joshua are hiding or covering something up. However, without additional information or witnesses, I cannot prove how [the child] got injured."
