8 July 9th - July 15th, 2026 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | praised him for his interactions with the public, referred to in documents as “customers.” “McRae is professional, courteous and understanding while contacting members of the public,” Hudson wrote. “He represents the agency well and has a level head dealing with hostile persons.” In less than 18 months, McRae has accumulated three documented citizen complaints in his file, which New Times received through a public records request. The complaint summaries provide broad strokes of the incidents, the complaints and the results of internal investigations. Requests for the indi- vidual investigation files have not yet been fulfilled. In September, a citizen accused McRae of violating his First Amendment rights while he filmed him conducting a traffic stop — notably, in the same Big O Tires parking lot on Hunt Highway where the deputy later cuffed Garro. The complainant accused him of shining his flashlight purposefully to block him from filming. The sheriff’s office did not sustain an allegation of “conduct unbecoming.” The investigation summary said the complainant “posed a potential threat” to McRae, noting that McRae went on to receive extra training on “First Amendment auditors” or citizen journalists. The second complaint was filed in November by a woman whom McRae detained and arrested when deputies responded to a call at her house party where there were “several hundred underage kids,” according to the summary. The woman allegedly ignored orders to not go back into the house, where her brother had barricaded himself. SWAT was called. The investiga- tion summary said the woman was “not cooperative” and that a complaint of “abuse of authority” was “unfounded.” The last of the three complaints was made in March by a woman who accused him of wrongfully sharing information about her case, which involved nude photos of her on the internet. She complained that McRae shared the infor- mation with the Queen Creek Police Department. McRae was investigated for the improper release of information and the accusation was “not sustained.” ‘I’ll never forget his face’ New Times also spoke to a fourth person, Diva Shelton, who did not file a formal complaint with the sheriff’s office but recog- nized the deputy from his photo in the story about Garro’s arrest. Shelton, a 36-year-old Uber Eats driver, said she was driving to deliver a pizza when another vehicle started to pressure her to speed up from behind. She accelerated to try to get out of its way and get over into the right lane. “I just thought it was like some jerk, like messing with me,” she said. “I thought somebody was just like riding my butt because that’s how people drive out there.” But then the lights flashed. Shelton said she panicked. It was her first time being pulled over by law enforcement since her boyfriend was shot and killed by a state trooper in 2024. She pulled off of Hunt Highway and into a Walgreens parking lot, parked the car, threw open her door and got out with her hands up. “In my brain, I just was like, you know, he didn’t get out and he got shot,” she said about her boyfriend, Lemonte Anthony Knobelock. “For some reason, I just thought to hop out of the car with my hands up.” McRae yelled at her and his hand went for his gun, she said, but he didn’t draw it. He called for backup. He kept yelling at her, saying that she was being erratic and asking if she was on any drugs. He then asked her why she accelerated. She explained that she had been trying to get out of his way. Shelton said she now knows that you shouldn’t get out of your car during a traffic stop — she learned her lesson the hard way — but she felt that McRae stayed aggressive, even after backup arrived and it was clear she wasn’t a threat. “You immediately are like, ‘Is this guy having a bad day?’” she said. “He’s just like aggressive, even from like the way he pulled me over, chasing me down, causing me to speed.” One of the deputies who arrived as backup was a calm woman, Shelton said. She felt she defused the situation, which had escalated very quickly. “If he hadn’t called in this woman to back him up, I feel like something could have went way worse,” she said. Shelton said she thinks the encounter lasted about 30 minutes. They ran her license and when she came back free of any warrants or a record, they let her go. McRae seemed disappointed that they didn’t have a reason to arrest her or cite her, she said. She characterized the encounter as “bizarre.” Salzwedel confirmed the traffic stop, noting that leaving a vehicle is something “you should never do unless instructed by the deputy.” He said the woman was given a warning for going 60 mph in a 45-mph zone. New Times has requested records from the traffic stop but those requests have not yet been fulfilled. Shelton said she did not file a formal complaint despite her friends encour- aging her to because she wasn’t sure how and was too busy to figure it out. McRae never identified himself to her. She didn’t know his name until a friend sent her a New Times article about Garro, unaware that it was the same deputy. She saw his photo and, like Button, burst into tears. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s the same exact guy,” she said. “I’ll never forget his face.” Rap Sheet from p 7 >> p 10 Carolyn Button at her East Valley home. (Clarissa Sosin)
