David Azari, 30, was arrested at 9:25 a.m. on Thursday and booked on suspicion of misdemeanor criminal damage, disorderly conduct, urinating in public and dog at large, police said.
As we reported in a June 11 article, surveillance video from the Atelier kitchen and bath showroom on North Craftsman Court showed a man stepping up to the mail slot in the glass front door just past midnight. He can be seen unzipping the front of his shorts, then urinating on mail through the slot as his unleashed mutt watches. The dirty act also soiled a rug, cops said.
A few days after business owner Steve Johnson recalls finding the urine-covered mail when he returned from an out-of-town trip the night after the June 3 crime.
"I had to throw it all out," he said. "Obviously I knew it was wet and I didn't want to touch it."
Johnson soon reviewed his surveillance video and saw plainly how the urine had ended up on his mail and rug, (though he didn't recognize the man.)
After he submitted the video to the Scottsdale City Council, police issued a news release asked the public for help in identifying the suspect. Azari was identified in the investigation as the man in the video, police spokesman Sergeant Kevin Watts said.
The Rockbar, also on North Craftsman Court, and owners of other businesses in the area had recently battled over a variance to keep two windows open at the club while live music played — one of many similar squabbles in recent years over the noise levels in downtown Scottsdale.
Johnson, perhaps, is impacted more than others in the area by loud music because he lives above his shop. A news article from 2011 shows that Johnson was worried about noise from Rockbar before it even opened.
"The city council sided with us, so Rockbar was not happy with the situation — so I expected something," Johnson told New Times. "It wasn't a simple vandalism."
Alex Mundy, owner of the Rockbar, said Azari quit his job earlier this month to pursue other interests. Azari was an excellent employee and maybe had an "unfortunate" lapse in judgment, if police allegations are true, he said.
But Johnson's more-than-vandalism theory is "outlandish," he maintained.
"There was no retaliation or anything like that," Mundy said.
Azari could not be reached.
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