Ex-tribal officer loses license after copping to masturbating at work

More than a year ago, Steven Hooper took a polygraph test as part of a routine reevaluation for his job as an officer of the Colorado River Department of Fish and Game. The department is part of the Colorado River Reservation, which straddles the Arizona-California border.

During that lie detector test, Hooper admitted that he had masturbated in the restroom at work on several occasions for “stress relief,” according to Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board compliance officer Dave Toporek. Hooper also admitted to videotaping his girlfriend while having sex multiple times without her knowledge or consent, which is a felony under Arizona law.

Unsurprisingly, Hooper failed his evaluation, which is required to serve as an officer with the department. The department fired him in January 2025. But that wasn’t the end of Hooper’s saga.

In November, Arizona’s police certification board opened an investigation into Hooper. Known as AZPOST, the board 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, Somerton’s police chief, Phoenix City Councilmember Kevin Robinson and Ryan Thornell, director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry. Last year, the board punished 42 current and former officers.

At its February meeting last week, the board unanimously voted to revoke Hooper’s certification as a law enforcement officer. 

Appearing virtually at the meeting, Hooper offered a rambling, scrambled 10-minute monologue in his own defense. He asked for leniency and claimed he “never got the opportunity to explain myself,” though his explanation to the board was less than convincing. Hooper said he thought he had to answer yes during his polygraph because he believed the definition of masturbation was doing anything in the bathroom other than urinating. He added that he didn’t “smoke or drink” amid a stressful divorce and masturbated “because I don’t want to walk around aroused.”

His pleading fell on deaf ears. The meeting wasn’t the time to “rejudge the facts,” said board member and Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels, but rather to “assess the sanction that we have in front of us.” AZPOST staff recommended that the board revoke his certification, which it unanimously approved.

A dozen White Claws will do that

At its second meeting of 2026, AZPOST also voted to punish or investigate two current officers and one former officer from various departments around Arizona.

One officer under investigation is former Salt River Police Department officer Ryan Jacquez. Early one morning in October 2025, officers with the Queen Creek Police Department came across a one-vehicle accident involving Jacquez’s Toyota Tundra.

Jacquez had been on his way to work at the time of the accident. When officers searched his car, which was on the wrong side of the road, they found his department-issued AR-15, two Glock handguns and an open can of White Claw hard seltzer.

Over the previous day, Jacquez had consumed a 12-pack of White Claws, stopping just around midnight. But just more than two hours later, Jacquez woke up to get ready for his shift at the police department, likely still drunk. While on his way to work, Jacquez fell asleep at the wheel, according to AZPOST compliance officer Bill Caldwell.

According to bystanders, Jacquez’s vehicle was in the farthest-right lane when it “suddenly left the roadway and struck a utility pole,” Caldwell said. Jacquez told officers that he was “tired, distracted and on his phone when the collision occurred.” Eventually, Jacquez admitted he fell asleep while driving to work.

Jacquez declined to take a field sobriety test at the scene, so Queen Creek officers arrested him in his Salt River Tribal Police Department polo, work pants and boots. A breath test revealed that Jacquez’s blood alcohol level was 0.22, which is nearly three times the legal limit in Arizona. A blood test even came back with slightly higher alcohol level results.

He was terminated by the Salt River Trial Police Department and now faces pending charges in the San Tan Justice Court for a DUI and an extreme DUI. Last week, the AZPOST board recommended investigating Jacquez, which would result in the suspension or revocation of his law enforcement license.

The board also opened an investigation into Cocopah Tribal Police Department officer Jose Carrillo, who is trying to join the Somerton Police Department. AZPOST conducted a background check audit on Carrillo after Somerton police said they were appointing Carrillo to a sworn officer position. That audit revealed that Carrillo had been disqualified from a position at the Arizona Department of Public Safety in 2024 after he admitted in a polygraph test that he’d lied in an internal investigation while he was with the San Luis Police Department. Carillo allegedly admitted to lying about his failure to turn in reports on time or at all.

Also at its February meeting, the board suspended Phoenix police officer Nicholas Tsosie for one month. Over a three-month period, Tsosie had sent more than 50 unsolicited texts from his personal cell phone to a victim he’d responded to after a call for service. The AZPOST suspension comes on top of a 40-hour suspension that Tsosie received from Phoenix police.