10 April 18th-April 24th, 2024 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | prosecutor for Goodyear and a onetime MCAO bureau chief, claimed the Ryan case was part of a pattern in Mitchell’s office. She criticized Mitchell for overusing diversion programs for defendants and sending too many cases to municipalities for prosecution. Godbehere joins a chorus of people faulting the plea deal, including Tamika Wooten, the Democrat who will face the winner of the GOP primary for county attorney. Wooten, a former chief prosecutor for Glendale, essentially agreed with Godbehere on Mitchell’s treatment of Ryan. “As a prosecutor, justice is supposed to be blind, and (Mitchell’s) not making her deci- sions that way,” Wooten told Phoenix New Times. “I think there was definitely some favoritism based on Ryan’s former position.” Drunk, barricaded and pointing a gun at police It’s not just politicians crying foul. In letters to Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Geoffrey Fish, who is over- seeing Ryan’s case, the Tempe police detectives who confronted Ryan on the night of Jan. 6, 2022, stated that they believed Ryan had committed aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. That’s a class 3 felony with a mandatory prison sentence of five to 15 years. That’s a far more serious offense than disorderly conduct, a class 6 felony, which has a range of sentencing options, from probation to a maximum of two years in prison. Ryan initially was indicted on two class 6 felonies: disorderly conduct and misconduct with a weapon, with the latter dropped as part of the plea deal. In the letters to the court, Tempe police detectives Michael McCasland and Fahed Salameh described how they responded to a 911 call from Ryan’s wife. She told author- ities that her husband had shot and wounded himself after consuming half a bottle of tequila. During a three-hour standoff, Ryan, then 71, barricaded himself inside his home and refused orders to exit. Some 50 police officers responded and several nearby homes were evacuated. At one point, he opened a side door to his garage and appeared to point a black revolver at police officers, then retreated inside. On bodycam footage of the incident, McCasland and Salmeh can be heard ordering Ryan to drop the gun. Ryan does not respond or comply. Both detectives make it clear that they believe Ryan pointed his gun at them, thereby committing aggravated assault under Arizona law. “Mr. Ryan pointed the gun at myself and Det. Salameh for 15 seconds,” McCasland wrote, explaining that the detectives did not realize it was a firearm until Ryan lowered his hand. “It is not a good feeling knowing that a gun was pointed in your direction for 15 seconds,” McCasland added. McCasland said Arizona law allows peace officers to use deadly force to protect themselves or others when facing serious injury or death. He said police fired two beanbag rounds at Ryan during the confrontation. The Tempe SWAT team also was called to the scene. According to McCasland, Ryan’s wife told police that Ryan had been “drinking upward of half a bottle of tequila a night for the last two years.” She said Ryan would drunkenly “patrol” their residence at night, paranoid that someone might be breaking into his home. In his letter, Salameh wrote that Ryan was lucky to be alive. Salameh said that if he had recog- nized that Ryan had a gun earlier, he would have used lethal force. The detective also believed Ryan was receiving preferential treatment. “If a gang member or gener- ally any other person had acted the same way Mr. Ryan did on Jan. 6, 2022, they would be in prison with full sentencing,” Salameh wrote in his letter. “Just because Mr. Ryan had never before committed a violent felony as he did that evening, it does not mean he is not capable of doing it again, and it certainly does not mean he should not be held responsible. Politics are very much involved in this situation.” Mitchell’s office has given several reasons why it did not pursue aggravated assault charges against Ryan. KJZZ 91.5 FM quoted Mitchell as saying that Ryan never pointed the gun directly at the officers. “He’s got a gun in his hand. He’s moving it around. And so at some point that it crosses over the offi- cers,” she said. The Arizona Republic quoted Mitchell’s top flack, Jeanine L’Ecuyer, as saying that the county attorney’s office could not prove Ryan’s “intent” to place officers in harm’s way, in part because Ryan was drunk and “unable to form intent.” L’Ecuyer told New Times that Ryan’s inebriation “was one of several factors” in the decision not to charge him with aggra- vated assault. The plea deal was the best result for the case, she said. “The short answer is that it was deter- mined to be the best resolution of the case,” L’Ecuyer said. On Feb. 9, Fish approved the plea deal, sentencing Ryan to two years of supervised parole and ordering him to pay $8,500 in restitution to Tempe police. ‘Sweetheart Deal’ from p 5 ‘Another black eye’ for Mitchell’s office The outcome in the Ryan case rankles many in the Valley. Veteran Phoenix defense attorney Richard Gaxiola called the plea deal with Ryan “favoritism” and “another black eye” for Mitchell’s office. “If Charles Ryan were a young Latino or Black kid, he’d have been sent to prison, no issues whatsoever,” Gaxiola said. “It doesn’t matter whether the person was intoxicated or on the influence of narcotics. He did that voluntarily. It’s not a defense in Arizona law.” Longtime progressive anti-prison activist Caroline Isaacs, executive director of the nonprofit advocacy group Just Communities Arizona, said the county attorney’s double standard in Ryan’s case was “glaring.” Asked what would’ve happened if Ryan had been a person of color, she was unequivocal. “He would be dead, because men of color do not get the benefit of the doubt by any law enforcement agency in this country,” she said. Isaacs was formerly program director for the Arizona branch of the American Friends Service Committee, which advo- cates for the rights of incarcerated people. She was a constant critic of Ryan, whose tenure at ADCRR was plagued by scandal, cruelty, inmate deaths and controversy. Still, she showed empathy toward a man whose reign over the state’s prison system she loathed. “I have a lot of anger toward Charles Ryan for what he’s done, heading up the prison system in this state,” she said. “I’ve seen it harm a lot of people I care about. And if I am who I believe myself to be, I am going to argue on behalf of Charles Ryan’s right to be seen as a human being in this system.” For her part, Mitchell, during her regular biweekly press conference on April 4, defended the plea deal with Ryan. Her response to her critics, however, seemed tone deaf. “People who are out there opining on this case, without having watched all the bodycams and read all of the police reports and listened to the interviews, are doing just that — they’re opining,” she said. Tamika Wooten, a Democrat running for Maricopa County Attorney, criticized the Charles Ryan plea deal as favoritism. (Photo courtesy Tamika Wootene)
