Embattled Pinal County prosecutor’s top investigator is disgraced cop

For the past month, MAGA-aligned Pinal County Attorney Brad Miller has been stubbornly insisting that a 287(g) agreement his office struck with Immigration and Customs Enforcement is legal, allowing his investigators to enforce federal immigration law. Given the rampant abuses and questionable practices exhibited by ICE agents during the second Trump presidency, Miller’s top investigator should fit right in.

Soon after taking office in January 2025, Miller hired Richard “Hank” Mueller to be the county attorney’s “law enforcement liaison.” According to the office’s website, he is currently “chief of investigations.” As such, Mueller leads a team of eight investigators with the county attorney’s office. He is also the office’s point of contact listed in its controversial 287(g) agreement with ICE. 

But even ICE’s most rough-and-tumble agents might have cleaner track records than Mueller does.

Personnel records and court documents obtained by Phoenix New Times show that Mueller has quite the rap sheet. Mueller’s sordid history as a cop goes back to at least 2009, when he was with the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office. That year, as New Times later reported, an unnamed captain added a note to Mueller’s personnel file citing “multiple red-flag issues and questions of veracity.” The captain advised the sheriff’s office not to retain Mueller, a warning it ignored.

In 2011, the sheriff’s office suspended Mueller for 20 hours without pay. The year before, Mueller and another deputy had forced their way into an innocent couple’s apartment without probable cause, extricating them at gunpoint on the incorrect assumption that one of them had fled on foot from Mueller after a traffic stop.

One year after that spanking, Mueller engaged in a drunken row at a Tempe sports bar. According to documents from the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board (AZPOST), Mueller punched a patron, ran from the cops and apparently tried to get out of a citation by appealing to the “professional courtesy” of his fellow law enforcement officers. Mueller, then a 30-something county sheriff’s deputy, caught a misdemeanor charge of “disorderly conduct,” which was dismissed after he completed a diversion program.

The professional fallout for Mueller was far more severe. Groomed for greatness and a possible PR gig by his infamously scummy mentor, former Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, Mueller was placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an internal investigation. He ultimately resigned in lieu of termination, according to the sheriff’s office. 

Mueller also landed on the Pinal County Attorney’s “Brady list” of cops with ethical issues, according to the Arizona Prosecuting Attorneys Advisory Council, which maintains an online database of Brady-listed officers in the state. That means that prosecutors would have to disclose his shady history to defense attorneys in cases related to his police work.

Former Pinal County Attorney Kent Volkmer told New Times that he was aware of Mueller being on his office’s Brady list during his tenure. Volkmer served as county attorney for eight years, but was bested by Miller in the 2024 GOP primary, which tends to decide elections in the ruby-red county.

New Times asked for a copy of the Pinal County Attorney’s Office’s Brady list to make sure Mueller’s name hasn’t been yanked off it by Miller, but that request has not been fulfilled.

APAAC offers two entries for “Richard Mueller” — one reported by the Pinal County Attorney’s Office for someone formerly employed by the sheriff’s office, and another reported by the Gila County Attorney’s Office for a former employee of the Miami and Globe police departments. New Times has also entered a records request with the Gila County Attorney’s Office for documents pertaining to the latter entry.

Asked if the entries were for the same individual, APAAC responded via email, stating that the council “serves solely as a central repository for the database” and that it simply “receives the names and adds them to the list.” It noted that “anything beyond that is outside the purview of the office.”

After leaving the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office, Mueller did work for a few months each at the Globe and Miami cop shops — in 2018 and 2019 — during which time he reportedly shot a man fleeing a traffic stop. Mueller also worked for about three years for the Superior Police Department, once known as “the island of misfit toys” for its tendency to hire “officers with extensive misconduct records,” according to an ABC15 report from 2020.

While in Superior in 2016, Mueller was part of a squad of four officers who used an invalid warrant to gain entry to the home of Richard Manriquez, an unarmed, disabled man in his mid-50s. The officers promptly beat and Tased the man so badly that they had to call an ambulance to tend to his wounds. Somehow, all four cops failed to turn on their body-worn cameras to record Manriquez’s unearned ass-kicking, but photos of Manriquez’s pulpy, brutalized face were included as part of the inevitable 2018 lawsuit against the city of Superior. The parties settled in 2023, according to court records, with the terms undisclosed.

Still, Mueller failed upwards — sort of. From 2020 to 2024, he was employed as the chief of police (no, really) for the tiny Pinal County town of Mammoth, which reportedly has a total of five officers to serve a population of about 1,200. Interestingly, Miller previously served as Mammoth’s city attorney, but sources told New Times that the Mueller-Miller affiliation precedes their sojourn in Mammoth. One of Miller’s first acts as county attorney was to hire Mueller at a starting salary of $93,000 a year.

New Times repeatedly reached out for comment to Miller, Mueller and to the Pinal County Attorney’s Office in general, but has yet to receive a reply.

Pants on fire 

Of the eight investigators employed by the Pinal County Attorney’s Office, Mueller is the only one listed in the APAAC database of Brady-listed cops. Which is not a good thing for Mueller or those who work for him.

Having a chief of investigations on the Brady list could be “very, very problematic,” former Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley told New Times. Being Brady-listed opens avenues for defense attorneys to impeach a cop’s credibility — and the reliability of their police work — in court. If Mueller has supervisory authority over the office’s investigations and if he reviews investigators’ reports, his credibility issues “potentially taint the other investigators,” Romley said.

“I think it inherently could complicate any investigation in which the investigators are involved with the county attorney’s office,” Romley said. “No question.”

Volkmer said he was familiar with Mueller from his tenure as the Mammoth police chief. He liked Mueller, he added, but he found it “a surprising hire” for Miller. Investigator jobs were considered to be “prestigious,” Volkmer said, and he always wanted to hire the “cream of the crop.” Given Mueller’s background, he would hardly seem to be that.

“I had my pick of the litter as county attorney for investigators when we had openings,” Volkmer said. “And this isn’t for my chief, this is just anywhere. When we had openings, I could get anybody I wanted.”

Volkmer’s former chief of staff, Garland Shreves, told New Times that investigators still with the county attorney’s office have told him they’re “unhappy” that Mueller is their supervisor. Though they see Mueller as “a decent guy who’s on the Brady list,” his past doesn’t dovetail with their sense of propriety “when their entire careers and values are about honesty.”

Shreves pointed out that Mueller was not Miller’s only questionable hire: Miller’s choice to replace Shreves was the hapless Jeremiah Brosowske. New Times previously reported on Brosowske’s tattered backstory, which includes being kicked off the city council of Hesperia, California, for not meeting residency requirements.

“Why would you only be able to find people with questionable backgrounds?” Shreves asked. “Why is that?”

One source with insider’s knowledge of the county attorney’s office — who asked not to be identified — observed that Miller’s penchant for birds with broken wings speaks to a “Trumpian” need for slavish devotion.

“Somebody that’s got a track record of being a problem or is not going to get into that place otherwise, if you hire that person, if you give them a break, it comes with a lot of loyalty to you,” the source said. Mueller will do “whatever Miller wants, without question,” the source added.

Then again, Miller may just want someone who plays as fast and loose with the rules as he apparently does.

Earlier this year, Miller lied to New Times about him and his staff using the encrypted app Signal to evade public records laws. Miller ultimately fessed up to the practice, and tried to downplay its seriousness, in an interview with the Arizona Republic. The all-Republican Pinal County Board of Supervisors recently referred that issue — along with several others, such as the unauthorized use of a national criminal database overseen by the Department of Public Safety — to Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes for possible investigation.

Whether Mayes will take up that investigation is not yet clear. She recently suggested, rather lamely, that her office might have a conflict if Miller said mean things about her on Signal, a standard by which Mayes would be disqualified from investigating any Arizona Republican. Mayes spokesperson Richie Taylor told New Times that “no final determination has been made” regarding whether or not the AG will investigate.

“But if a conflict exists that prevents the AG’s office from investigating the allegations, the matter would be referred to another County Attorney’s office for investigation,” Taylor said.

Meet the entourage 

Meanwhile, Mueller has become a constant presence by Miller’s side, part of his regular retinue. Mueller joined Miller for a trip to Washington, D.C., to attend a prosecutors’ conference and meet with far-right Arizona Reps. Andy Biggs and Abe Hamedeh. Both Mueller and Brosowske were along for the ride, appearing in photos and videos posted by Miller’s office to social media. 

In one video, Miller talks of meeting with an official with the Department of Homeland Security, who assured him that his eight investigators “are able to partner with federal law enforcement.” That, Miller claims, is why his office needs a 287(g) agreement with ICE, which cross-deputizes his investigators so that they can lawfully detain and question individuals about their immigration status.

“This is what we’re fighting for,” Miller said in the video. “To share intelligence and to share information with our federal partners.”

The agreement is the source of great controversy in the county. Miller inked the ICE deal in June without the approval of the Pinal County Board of Supervisors, announcing the agreement at a press conference in December with two ICE agents — and Mueller, in dark glasses — by his side. The GOP-led board of supervisors sued Miller over the contract, declaring it void, and scored a temporary restraining order from a local judge that bars Miller from implementing the agreement. A Feb. 25 hearing on the matter was recently scrapped after Miller successfully sought a change of venue to Maricopa County.

The supervisors say that Miller’s a prosecutor, not the county’s “top law enforcement officer,” as he’s often styled himself, and that he should stay in his lane. Pinal County’s actual top cop is Sheriff Ross Teeple, who has a decades-old board-approved 287(g) agreement with ICE relating to the county jails. Teeple is also party to the suit against Miller, and the suit states that “unlike the County Attorney or the PCAO – the Sheriff is responsible for enforcement actions in Pinal County.”

Which should make sense to anyone who’s ever seen an episode of “Law & Order,” wherein the cops do the investigatin’ in the first half and the prosecutors do the prosecutin’ in the second half. Perhaps Miller never caught the show. Dun dun.

Notably, no other prosecutor in Arizona has a 287(g) agreement with ICE. In fact, ICE has only 10 such agreements with prosecutors nationwide out of more than 1,400 287(g) pacts listed on its website. Local county attorneys do not prosecute federal crimes, so it stands to reason that 287(g) agreements with them would be rare.

If information-sharing is Miller’s goal, though, he doesn’t need an ICE agreement to achieve it. Volkmer told New Times that his office held bimonthly intelligence meetings that were regularly attended by federal law enforcement agencies. Romley called Miller’s justification “ridiculous” because law enforcement already shares information.

“You don’t need to have 287(g) status for that,” Romley said. “Not at all.”

Romley claimed Miller’s effort to make his investigators part-time ICE agents created a host of issues for the supervisors, such as financing and civil liability. Per the agreement, the county would be on the hook for salaries, benefits and overtime. There’s also always the possibility of being sued for racial profiling, and the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office could tell Miller all about the price tag for that.

Then there’s the matter of jurisdiction and authority. According to state law, county supervisors are responsible for any agreements made by county entities and must say grace over them.

“I was a civil attorney for the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors,” Romley pointed out, adding that Miller is “absolutely wrong” on the law. Romley noted that county attorney investigators usually have their arms full as it is, interviewing witnesses and doing follow-up investigative work to assist local prosecutors in preparing their cases for trial.

“If your investigators have so much time that they could do this,” Romley said, “then maybe you don’t need so many investigators.”

Nonetheless, Miller has successfully used this bogus ICE issue to garner beaucoup earned media. In one op-ed published by several outlets, Miller insisted that, by gum, his office does do law enforcement via the “sworn peace officers” he uses as investigators, all of whom have been certified by AZPOST. Miller neglected to mention that Mueller’s indiscretions caused AZPOST to suspend his peace officer certification for two years, from 2013 to 2015.

Miller won’t be able to avoid the subject forever, though. Should any of Mueller’s investigative work wind up in court, defense attorneys are sure to bring it up.

This story is part of the Arizona Watchdog Project, a yearlong reporting effort led by New Times and supported by the Trace Foundation, in partnership with Deep South Today.