Phoenix Police Department brass were understanding of Sgt. Edward Carnes’ DUI, especially since the cop who worked for the force for nearly two decades had made efforts to change. On Wednesday, the Arizona board that disciplines officers took a tougher stance, suspending Carnes’ certification for a year.
The Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training 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.
The decision came after 45 minutes of deliberation in which the board heard from Carnes, who addressed the board in uniform.
Carnes was arrested on March 18, 2023, by Queen Creek police for a DUI with a blood alcohol content of 0.157. He was seen sleeping in his driver's seat before driving away and committing a traffic violation. The sergeant entered a plea deal in November 2023 and was suspended by Phoenix police for three weeks.
“To this day, I still can’t truly answer the question as to why I did what I did, other than it was God’s plan,” Carnes told the board. He attested that he had renewed his faith, started attending church with his children and went to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings daily for a year.
He said that life-changing events at the end of 2022 (“first world problems,” he noted) put him into a bad place and he didn’t deal with his emotions.
“Being raised Irish as I was, I just kind of held that aside. I didn’t tell anybody, I didn’t ask for help,” he said. “I just went about the day carrying the weight of it, pretending nothing was happening."
He said that on the night of his DUI he was blowing off steam and had a plan that he wouldn’t drive home. Yet, as noted by Bill Mundell, who is a board member and Arizona’s chief deputy attorney general, Carnes took an Uber to his car.
After his three-week suspension Carnes continued working. He brought home nearly $130,000 in 2023 and $166,000 in 2024, according to city compensation data.
'A danger to the public going forward'?
Steve Serbalik, the attorney who represented Carnes before the board (and who also runs a police defense YouTube channel), said that a suspension of a year would effectively end the sergeant’s career.
“It’s unique because he’s a sergeant,” Serbalik said, explaining that sergeants are not allowed to be in non-enforcement positions for that long. “It’s not clear that there would be a position available for him.”
For the board, DUI cases tend to be the most straightforward.
“I joke all the time that the board is consistently inconsistent,” said AZPOST Executive Director Matt Giordano. “I can tell you in the six-and-a-half years I’ve been here, the board has been very consistent. And a DUI with this fact pattern has been a 12-month suspension.”
Serbalik tried to convince the board that Carnes’ personal reforms and the department’s support to get him back on track were grounds to consider a shorter penalty.
“God forbid you have an agency from all of the levels up saying, ‘We’re going to look at the totality of the circumstances,’” Serbalik said. “None of that will matter according to the state because we have to do a year suspension for that. Otherwise what? The public is somehow going to think these aren’t taken seriously? Otherwise he’s going to be a danger to the public going forward? That doesn’t make sense.”
The board remained resolute. Only Mundell voted against the year-long suspension.
Five other officers were served suspensions during the board meeting — four of which were also a full year. Their transgressions included another DUI and improperly accessing a police database to research a neighbor. Mercedes Hernandez of the Apache Junction Police Department was suspended until August 2026 for falling behind on 41 reports (18 of which she failed to submit charges for) and improperly using a police database.
So far this year, the board has punished 15 current and former law enforcement officers from across Arizona for such transgressions as driving an ATV through a playground with kids around while extremely drunk, submitting false timesheets, attempted sexual assault and using a police database for personal reasons.
The board has opened investigations into 14 other officers. Those include Phoenix police officer Timothy Clark, who went on a drunken rampage near Chase Field after a Diamondbacks game. He allegedly tried to fight a bar staffer, bit a security guard and punched a framed picture.
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.
