Ex-state trooper suspended for going easy on speeding truck driver

Last year, a state trooper tried to cut a speeding driver some slack. Last week, Arizona’s police certification board punished him for it.

On Oct. 15, the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board suspended former Arizona Department of Public Safety officer Joshua McCluskey for a year, though the suspension was retroactive and has already ended. McCluskey was fired by DPS last September after he tried to do a solid for a truck driver he caught speeding.

The board, known as AZPOST, licenses all law enforcement officers in the state and is one of the few agencies in Arizona with the power to discipline police. The 12-member board includes Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, two rural sheriffs, two police chiefs, Phoenix City Councilmember Kevin Robinson and Ryan Thornell, director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry.

Last year, McCluskey clocked a commercial truck driver who was speeding. According to assistant Arizona Attorney General Mark Brachtl, McCluskey “said he knew that a moving violation would put points on the driver’s license, which would negatively impact the driver’s commercial license.” So McCluskey, who’d been a state trooper for two and a half years, issued him what he thought would be a lesser citation.

“I can cut you a break,” McCluskey reportedly told the driver. “I see you wearing your seatbelt, but I could say I didn’t see you wearing your seatbelt, which is a super low fine and has no points on your license. I’ll give you the option of which one you want.”

In other words, McCluskey is exactly the kind of officer any driver would want to encounter if they had to be pulled over. But that kindness came back to bite him.

The driver chose the seatbelt citation, but that ended up being a very serious one for his employer. He spilled the beans about what happened and a supervisor at the trucking company informed DPS, which started an internal investigation. McCluskey was fired on Sept. 9, 2024.

Samantha Caplinger, McCluskey’s lawyer, noted that McCluskey had not lied about what he did, comparing his case to other punishments the board had doled out for similar lapses in judgment. “He was never dishonest to his supervisor, he was never dishonest about the facts of this case. He was very forthcoming and explained his mistake in thinking,” she said.

McClusky, who attended the October meeting, claimed that he was trained by other officers that it was OK to issue lesser citations — and that it was “done all the time,” one told him.

“This is a way to build relationships with the community,” McCluskey said he was told, adding that it was a way to cool the perception that DPS troopers “just pick on people.” Nonetheless, he apologized for issuing a bogus citation and said he wouldn’t do anything of the sort again. 

Some members of the AZPOST board weren’t very eager to hand down a harsh punishment to McCluskey. Several noted that officers do have some discretion in ticketing decisions and that the former trooper wasn’t trying to benefit himself. “Couldn’t you have just issued a warning?” Bill Mundell, a board member and Arizona’s chief deputy attorney general, asked McCluskey. “I mean, it’s almost like no good deed goes unpunished here.”

McCluskey responded that his sergeant told him not to write warnings and only issue citations.

AZPOST staff recommended a suspension of McCluskey’s certification for anywhere between zero and 18 months. Ultimately, the board voted unanimously to suspend his certification for a year retroactively. The suspension ended on Sept. 9 of this year and McCluskey is eligible to serve as a law enforcement officer immediately.

Urine real trouble

So far this year, the board has punished 36 current and former law enforcement officers from across Arizona for misdeeds, including but not limited to: driving an ATV through a playground with kids around while extremely drunk, keeping crime scene evidence, using unnecessary force, submitting false timesheets, attempted sexual assault and using a police database for personal reasons.

In 2024, AZPOST opened 48 investigations into officers and punished 43 cops, including for putting the muzzle of a gun to a woman’s head, asking two high school girls when they lost their virginity, driving while under the influence, lying to superiors or investigators and needlessly handcuffing an 82-year-old lady.

Also at the October meeting, the board suspended the licence of former Casa Grande cop Galen Flynn for 18 months. Flynn was swerving in his Ford F-150 so badly on March 6 that another driver in Chandler called the police out of concern. After being difficult during his arrest, Flynn was taken to the police station, where he released his bladder all over himself and a bench in the interrogation room.

Flynn’s blood alcohol content was .287, more than three times over the legal limit. Caldwell said that while a bathroom was just around the corner, Flynn didn’t say anything about needing to urinate before wetting himself. 

The board opened an investigation into his conduct in August. Flynn had already been fired from the Casa Grande Police Department, according to the board’s compliance specialist William Caldwell. He declined to contest the allegations against him to the board and did not show up to the October meeting.

The board also suspended the certification of Manuel Abeyta, a Phoenix Police Department detective, for a year. In April 2023, Abeyta and his wife got into a drunken argument that turned into a physical altercation in which he pushed her into a wall with a mirror on it, breaking the mirror.

Chandler police were called, and though the charges against him were dropped, he was suspended for 240 hours by the department, where he still works. 

Abeyta addressed the board, claiming that he went through an in-patient wellness program and has made efforts to address his relationship with alcohol and manage his stress. His commander, Shane Disotell, also showed up to the meeting to speak on behalf of Abeyta.

“Your presence speaks loudly,” the board’s chair, Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels, said to Disotell.

Abeyta’s certification will be suspended until September 2026, when he can resume working as a law enforcement officer again.