Violent, creepy cops: 22 Arizona police officers punished so far in 2024

Arizona's law enforcement watchdog has opened misconduct investigations into 25 cops and punished 22 from around the state so far this year, including an officer who put the muzzle of his gun to a woman’s head and another who asked two high school girls when they had lost their virginity.

The board has opened 37 investigations into sworn officers since August, when Phoenix New Times last reviewed misconduct probes from the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board.

Known as AZPOST, the agency is one of the few in the state with the power to discipline police. Its principal task is certifying all officers across the state, but it also has the power to revoke or suspend the certifications of officers who demonstrate troubling behavior.

The 12-member board includes Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, two rural sheriffs, Phoenix Councilmember Kevin Robinson and Ryan Thornell, director of the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry. The board's most recent meeting was April 17.

So far in 2024, the board has suspended or revoked peace officer certifications for a variety of reasons. It has punished cops for lying, driving while extremely impaired, using excessive force and harassing minors, to name a few.

Here are some of the most egregious police misconduct cases AZPOST has heard since January.

Mesa officer gets creepy

In March 2023, Mesa cop Clinton Bertola stopped a car he spotted doing doughnuts in the parking lot of a local park. Two people, both female high school students, were in the car.

Bertola’s missteps started immediately, according to Assistant Attorney General Joe Dylo’s presentation to the board in January. Bertola was required to inform his dispatcher about the stop and turn on his body camera, but he did neither. Operating without supervision, Bertola got creepy.

The driver gave Bertola her license, but the passenger lacked one and offered the officer a copy of her high school identification on her phone. Dylo said Bertola then took both back to his patrol vehicle, where he went through the girl’s phone without her consent. When he returned, he asked the passenger whether she was wearing a bra and asked both girls when they had lost their virginity. He told them they were dressed like 20-year-olds and scantily clad.

“As a mother of three girls, I can see no justification for that kind of conversation with high school girls,” Leesa Weisz, a civilian board member, said during the January meeting.

Bertola resigned in the wake of the incident. In February, the board unanimously accepted a consent agreement with Bertola and suspended Bertola’s license until June 2026, when it will expire. Bertola will be able to reapply for certification after the end of the suspension.

“He takes full responsibility for his actions, which is why he resigned from his position with Mesa Police Department,” Chad Smith, a lawyer representing Bertola, told the board in January.

A gun to the head in Gilbert

On Oct. 1, 2022, Andrew Neves of the Gilbert Police Department was on patrol when he saw a female suspect driving a stolen car that she’d used to flee other officers earlier in the day. She didn’t escape a second time, but she did get Neves’ service weapon placed to her head.

The sequence of events was described by Assistant Attorney General Mark Brachtl at the board’s January meeting. Once Neves spotted the woman, he used his patrol vehicle to push hers into a residential driveway. When Neves tried to arrest the woman, she resisted. Neves used his gun to hold the woman’s head to the ground, but a supervisor arrived and forcibly removed his hands and the gun. When the supervisor moved away, Neves again pushed the gun’s muzzle down on the woman’s head.

Brachtl said Neves “threatening to use deadly physical force in this manner and under these circumstances is an unreasonable use of force.” Brachtl added that Neves’ use of force “was not objectively reasonable based on the facts and circumstances confronting this officer at the time of the incident.”

The board voted unanimously to suspend Neves’ certification.

Neves’ suspension, which was retroactive, has already ended. It started on March 30, 2023, and lasted until the same date this year.

The worst of the rest

Other officers punished by AZPOST since January include:

• Phoenix cop Eric Burke, suspended for two years after rolling his personal vehicle while driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.28. The board approved the suspension on March 20 and it lasts until Feb. 6, 2026.
  
  
• Paul J. Dore Jr. of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, was suspended in March for three years after accessing law enforcement databases to examine the records of a coworker with whom he’d conducted a sexual relationship. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office charged Dore with two counts of a class six felony, although the case was dismissed in September 2023. His suspension, retroactive to March 2023, ends in March 2026.
  
  
• Arizona State University police officer Colton Adams, fired in February for failing to maintain records in September 2022 and then lying about it. Adams delivered an apology to the board in January, noting he’d worked for ASU police since 2011. The board voted unanimously to revoke Adams’ certification during its Jan. 17 meeting.