7 July 9th - July 15th, 2026 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | Rap Sheet Complaints trail Pinal County Sheriff’s deputy who roughed up deaf Lyft driver. BY CLARISSA SOSIN I n April, Carolyn Button fell down a rabbit hole. A few days earlier, she’d filed a notice of claim over what she said was a wrongful arrest at the hands of a Pinal County Sheriff’s Deputy. As she had done several times before, she found herself Googling the name of the deputy who’d held her at gunpoint outside her home — despite being unarmed — and then thrown her in jail. The Oct. 22 encounter had left marks. The deputy had arrested her for aggravated assault for allegedly brandishing a .410- gauge shotgun at a process server who’d trespassed on her property. It was a felony that carries a sentence of 5 to 15 years in prison. She’d spent five terrified nights in jail in Florence before being bonded out. Two months later, the Pinal County Attorney’s Office dropped the charges. Since then, she’d searched for infor- mation on the deputy who’d put her through that ordeal. Previous queries had been fruitless, but when she entered his name this time — Aaron McRae — she got a hit. This time, she found a recently published story from Phoenix New Times about an elderly, deaf Lyft driver who’d been roughed up during a traffic stop. She clicked, wondering if the name of her tormentor would pop up. “I’m thinking: What are the chances this could be the same cop?” Button said last month. Then she saw it. “The speeding cita- tion was dropped when the deputy listed on his ticket, identified as ‘Deputy A. McRae,’ failed to show for a hearing,” the story read. “I just dropped to my knees and burst into tears because I knew now they’re going to listen,” Button said, tearing up again as she sat in her kitchen in her home in San Tan Valley. “Pinal County, they can’t cover up for him.” Button had filed her claim two days earlier, the same day New Times reported on McRae’s violent encounter with Tom Garro, who is 79 years old and deaf. Like Button, Garro was arrested by McRae. While Garro is considering a lawsuit, Button is already traveling down that road. In her notice of claim against the county, she accused McRae and the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office of intentional infliction of emotional distress, assault, malicious prosecution, false arrest and false imprisonment. She asked for $200,000, a sum her attorney noted is in line with other settlements and jury verdicts in which officers pointed their firearms at people without cause and in which people were wrongfully detained. Pinal County did not respond to her notice of claim within the 60-day deadline, which passed on June 20. Sheriff’s office public information officer Samuel Salzwedel confirmed to New Times that the agency has not opened any investiga- tions, internal or otherwise, into McRae’s actions in Button’s case. He also confirmed that the sheriff’s office is not investigating McRae for the incident with Garro either, despite revelations that Garro’s passenger that day called 911 on the deputy because she was so scared of him. And in a statement provided by Salzwedel, Pinal County Sheriff Ross Teeple defended McRae. “I support my deputies,” Teeple said. “Their job is hard enough without getting investigated for every baseless complaint.” Whether the complaints are baseless remains to be seen, and theoretically, would require more investigation than the sheriff’s office has performed. But what’s certain is that when it comes to McRae, there are a notable number of recent complaints. Both Button and Garro had disturbing run-ins with McRae, and New Times has identified other incidents involving the deputy that raise questions. The absence of an inves- tigation in the wake of these incidents underscores resident concerns about whether the office is holding its deputies to account. “The police officer is supposed to protect us,” Garro told New Times after being told about Button’s case. “He’s supposed to keep us safe. But knowing that it’s not just me and that there’s someone else, it shows that there’s a pattern.” A history of complaints McRae joined the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office in February 2025 after going through training at the Gilbert Police Academy, according to a file on him kept by the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board. His supervisor, Sgt. Corey Hudson, noted in his performance evaluation at the end of his one-year probationary period that McRae “dealt with a number of difficult scenarios on patrol since joining PCSO,” pointing to a “critical incident” during which he showed “poise, professionalism and courage.” The critical incident was an officer- involved shooting from July 17, 2025. A sergeant, McRae and another deputy shot and killed a woman and injured a man after a car chase. McRae was awarded a Medal of Valor for the shooting and cleared of any policy violations by the sheriff’s office’s Professional Standards Unit. New Times has requested but not yet received a copy of the investigation. According to his file, McRae also received a Lifesaving Medal for performing chest compressions on a child whose ventilator stopped working. In his evaluation, his supervisor Pinal County Sheriff’s deputy Aaron McRae. (Photo by Tom Garro, illustration by Eric-John Torres) Tom Garro. 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