12 Dec 1st–Dec 7th, 2022 phoenixnewtimes.com phoenix new Times | music | cafe | film | culTuRe | NighT+Day | feaTuRe | NeWs | OPiNiON | feeDBacK | cONTeNTs | charges and bloodwork to prosecutors — or at least that AZPOST was informed that the charges were submitted. But prosecutors said they never received a submittal from the sheriff’s office. The county attorney’s office had “no record” that it had ever received the charges and details about Halleman’s blood alcohol levels after an initial citation, MCAO spokesperson Jennifer Liewer told New Times in November. On November 7, New Times sent multiple requests to the sheriff’s office for more infor- mation and informed MCSO that prosecutors had denied the agency’s version of events. MCSO did not respond and did not clarify the agency’s role in the bungled case until after New Times published a story about the case on November 17. That’s when the sheriff’s office took respon- sibility for the botched case against Halleman. “It’s on us,” Joaquin Enriquez, a sheriff’s office spokesperson, told New Times. He said that the agency never submitted the case to prosecutors. The sheriff’s office’s internal affairs bureau has launched an investigation to find out why, he added. So far, Enriquez said, the agency found that while the case was submitted internally, a printed copy of the charges was never brought to county prosecutors, as is protocol. “That didn’t happen,” Enriquez explained. “Why it was not done, why it took so long, and when the resubmittal did occur, why didn’t it go downtown? These are all questions that are going to be answered once the investiga- tion is completed,” he added. After the sheriff’s office took responsibility, Liewer told New Times that the county attor- ney’s office had nothing further to add. “I stand by my comment that the case was never resubmitted to our office by MCSO,” she said. A Backlog of DUI Cases When New Times contacted Deltenre directly to ask about why Halleman didn’t face charges in the case, the investigator did not respond. But Matt Giordano, the executive director of AZPOST, did provide a brief statement in an email. “We have no additional information other than the case was never prosecuted,” he said. Liewer called the information in the AZPOST case file “concerning.” She said that as far as she could tell, prosecutors never received the information on the bloodwork, even though it was later provided to AZPOST. This is not the first time that law enforce- ment and prosecutors in Maricopa County have mishandled a DUI case. Under former County Attorney Allister Adel, media reports of the 180 dropped cases — which included DUIs — became a major scandal. Adel resigned in March 2022, shortly after the news made headlines. Those 180 cases dated back to 2020 and largely were filed by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and the Arizona Department of Public Safety. But the issue of bungled cases goes back further. A 2018 case that involved a fatal accident by a drunk driver also was dropped by MCAO after prosecutors failed to meet the statute of limitations. County Attorney Rachel Mitchell has prom- ised to clean up the prosecutor’s office after the scandal-ridden tenure of her predecessor, yet the statute of limitations in Halleman’s passed in July 2022 — while Mitchell was at the helm. A backlog of DUI cases has continued to build under her watch. Halleman’s case was distinct from the older dropped cases, Liewer argued. “Those were on us. Those were in our case filing system waiting to be charged, and they sat in our computer system and didn’t get charged,” she said. That’s not what happened with Halleman’s case, she explained. Yet Halleman so far has escaped with a three-week suspension. | NEWS | Botch from p 11 The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office eventually took responsibility for a botched DUI case against a Phoenix police officer. James Deak
