| NEWS | Protection Order A Phoenix police lieutenant is under investigation for failing to investigate a sexual assault allegation against a fellow cop. BY KATYA SCHWENK I n October 2016, a woman met with a Phoenix police lieutenant to report a sexual assault. She had been held against her will by her then-boy- friend, she told him. There was evi- dence at the home to prove it. But the lieutenant, Brian Thatcher, cut their conversation short. He did not think a crime had been committed, he told her, and he would not be collecting any evi- dence. The woman, whose name New Times is withholding for her privacy, was dis- tressed, but unsurprised: The man she was accusing was Thatcher’s colleague, Phoe- nix sergeant Leroy Potter. Back in 2016, Phoenix police dealt with the incident quietly. The woman filed a lawsuit against the city, but the eventual settlement was kept under wraps. Inter- nally, Thatcher received a 15-day suspen- sion, but the incidents were not reported to the state. Nor was Thatcher placed on a Brady list, which prosecutors use, some- times haphazardly, to keep track of officers with credibility issues. Instead, Thatcher has since become one of the force’s most highly paid lieutenants and the vice presi- dent of Phoenix’s sergeants and lieuten- ants’ union. Potter, meanwhile, retired in the wake of the allegations, without other repercussions. But Thatcher may yet face a more seri- ous punishment over the incident, Phoenix New Times has learned. The Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training board, which can revoke officers’ law enforce- ment certifications, has reopened his case. According to emails obtained by New Times, Arizona POST’s deputy director, Ben Henry, began to look into Thatcher in March of this year — apparently, after stumbling on a single news brief from 2017, which included the bare bones of the woman’s claims against the officers. He sent a link to the Phoenix police, request- ing the department’s own investigation into the incident. “There was a concern about him on an earlier proj- ect too,” a POST officer wrote to Henry in another email. “Copy,” he replied. The board’s notes on the case, which were obtained by New Times after proceed- ings began in June, arrived at some damning conclu- sions. In her lawsuit against the city of Phoenix, the woman alleged that Potter, who had worked as a Phoenix police officer for more than two decades, had sexually as- saulted her several times. He had locked her in handcuffs for multiple hours while she cried, she said; he had mis- placed the key, and been forced to cut her out of the cuffs with bolt cutters. According to case notes from AZPOST, the woman told all of this to Thatcher days AZ Law Enforcement Training Lieutenant Brian Thatcher. after it occurred, begging him to investi- gate his colleague. Their initial conversa- tion was recorded; partial transcripts appear in Thatcher’s case file. As they spoke, the woman told Thatcher a dozen times that she was “held against >> p 13 11 phoenixnewtimes.com | CONTENTS | FEEDBACK | OPINION | NEWS | FEATURE | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | PHOENIX NEW TIMES SEPT 2ND – SEPT 8TH, 2021
