Ex-Goodyear cop suspended for locking neglectful dad in a hot car

On a hot summer day in June 2024, ex-Goodyear police officer Justin Gaspar decided to give a suspect a taste of his own medicine. The man ended up in the hospital. 

Amid one of Phoenix’s hottest summers on record, Gaspar came across an arguing couple whose children had been locked in the car for 15 minutes, even though the temperature reportedly reached about 110 degrees inside the vehicle. Gaspar arrested the father for endangerment after the man refused to provide his keys to let his 4- and 9-year-old children out of the car.

After the arrest, the man’s children were transferred to Phoenix Children’s Hospital. As for the father, Gaspar had another treatment in mind. 

The cop placed the man in the prisoner compartment in the back of his patrol vehicle for a 15-minute drive to Goodyear’s jail. Gaspar turned off the air conditioning for the prisoner compartment and closed his vehicle’s partition, eliminating the man’s access to air conditioning. When they arrived at the jail, Gaspar was informed that it couldn’t accept prisoners, so he had to transport the man to the Goodyear Police Department. During that drive, Gaspar repeatedly turned the air conditioning in the vehicle’s prisoner compartment on and off.

The man began to complain of feeling ill and became unresponsive, prompting the cop to drive to the hospital. There, the man regained consciousness, was treated and eventually released. Gaspar told his supervisor and medical staff that he thought the man was faking his medical condition.

Gaspar was fired from the Goodyear Police Department and later pleaded guilty to one count of impingement, or false imprisonment, and was sentenced to six months of probation. That wasn’t his last punishment. Last week, Arizona’s police certification board suspended Gaspar’s peace officer certification for three years. The suspension is backdated and will expire in August 2027.

The board — known as the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board, or 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, Somerton’s police chief, Phoenix City Councilmember Kevin Robinson and Ryan Thornell, director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry.

“In all honesty, my intent was to make him uncomfortable. One hundred percent, I’m not going to deny that,” Gaspar told the board at its Jan. 21 meeting. “I know it’s not our job to punish, but if you could have seen the look on these kids’ faces that day…”

The board opened an investigation into Gaspar in August 2025. Gaspar and his attorney attended the January meeting to advocate against the revocation of his license.

“I made a horrible decision that day,” Gaspar told the board. “I know it was wrong. I got caught up in the moment. I take full responsibility.” 

The board was not united in what to do about Gaspar’s case. Coconino County Sheriff’s Office Jail Commander Matthew Figueroa said he “struggle(d)” with the decision because “even on our worst day, we can’t, for many reasons, take it out on our prisoners, our arrestees or our inmates.” Chief Deputy Attorney General Bill Mundell said he understood “it’s an emotional situation, you’re dealing with children,” but was concerned with Gaspar’s “meanness” to “teach him a lesson or something.”

In its first vote, the board split 6-6 on the question of revocation. The board also split when voting on a two-year suspension. After Mundell said he’d vote for “something that was a little more severe,” the board voted for a retroactive three-year suspension, which passed on a voice vote. It was not unanimous.

When reached by Phoenix New Times after his testimony, Gaspar declined to comment.

Other suspensions and investigations 

In the first meeting of the year, the board also voted to punish 10 former and current law enforcement officers from across Arizona for various violations. Last year, the board punished 42 current and former officers.

In addition to Gaspar, ex-Mesa officer Joel Hight was one of the other officers suspended. In May 2023, Hight parked his patrol vehicle in downtown Phoenix to attend a grand jury hearing. When he returned to his spot, he had received a ticket, which he turned over to his superiors. When he was questioned about where he parked, Hight lied. Mesa police fired him in August 2023. AZPOST staff recommended that the board uphold the revocation of his certification, but the board ultimately handed down a two-year retroactive suspension.

Also penalized were: 

• Ex-Marana officer Daniel Bonn, who was suspended for a year after he broke into a truck during a binge-drinking episode and was arrested. His attorney said he had a significant drinking problem, but had sought treatment at an outpatient facility.
• Oro Valley officer Joshua Klaus, who received a 12-month suspension for paying for an Uber for a DUI suspect, accepting cash from the individual and then lying to his superior about it.
• Ex-Prescott Valley officer Kevin Waugh, who received a 12-month suspension for driving drunk and hitting his girlfriend’s car. 
• Ex-Gilbert officer Damian Gonzales, who received a six-month retroactive suspension for clocking into off-duty jobs before he got to the work site. 
• Pima County Sheriff’s Deputy Travis Gossen, who received a 12-month suspension after sexually harassing a female deputy he was training. 
• Ex-Mesa officer Richard Rosales, who received a 12-month suspension after he drunkenly accused his partner of cheating and caused her to fall and break her ankle. 
• Ex-Casa Grand officer Edgar Mejia, who received a three-year suspension after he was arrested for aggravated assault, disorderly conduct and criminal damage. The mother of his child claimed he assaulted her with a baby monitor while in his car before throwing it out the window and onto the highway. 
• Former Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office recruit Shamar Matthews, whose certification application was temporarily denied for 12 months after he lied to his supervisor about going to the nurse’s office during a break. 

The board also opened investigations into five current or former officers. 

That included former Tempe cop Latasha Hampton, who an AZPOST compliance specialist said deleted her Taser logs on Evidence.com after using the stun weapon on a suspect. Charges against Hampton for tampering with a public record were recommended to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, but the office declined to prosecute. Hampton was terminated by the Tempe Police Department in April 2025. 

Other recruits and former officers who now face investigations are:

• Former Pima County Sheriff’s Deputy Hemery Pambound, who was terminated after rear-ending a pickup truck and leaving the scene without leaving a note or calling 911. 
• Ex-Salt River tribal officer Stephanie Carmona-Zayas, who released a DUI suspect who was likely impaired.
• Former Phoenix police recruit Csaba Blosz, who said he was injured and couldn’t get out of bed after a no-call-no-show at the academy. His ride actually dropped him off somewhere other than the academy, where his wife picked him up.
• Former Eloy police recruit Dylan Stone, who said in paperwork that he had never used cocaine, but admitted he used it once when he was 17 during a polygraph.