OFF THE WIRE
PHOENIX (AP) — Whiskey Row in the Arizona mountain town of Prescott has seen its
share of bar fights, biker gangs and rowdies.
But the bar fights aren't
supposed to involve a biker gang made up of police officers carrying brass
knuckles and knives. The fallout from such a brawl in December has led to the
retirements of a police chief and two senior sheriff's officials and
recommendations of felony charges against the former chief for his alleged role
in trying to cover it up.
Two other current or former law enforcement
officers and an ambulance supervisor face possible charges, and local and state
agencies are investigating involved officers. At least one federal officer who
also is an Iron Brotherhood Motorcycle Club was at the bar, and a Customs and
Border Protection spokesman said the agency was looking into his role in the
group.
The motorcycle club had many of the same rituals and garb as
"outlaw" gangs, according to interviews and police reports. They used nicknames
only, wore biker club patches and rewarded at least one member who got in a
previous fight with a special patch.
Just how a group of mainly
high-ranking law enforcement officers decided to join what looks and acts in
many ways like an outlaw biker gang baffles the local sheriff. Police said no
weapons were used but were displayed before the bar fight.
"You've got
senior veteran law enforcement officers from federal, state and local agencies
engaged in this kind of activity. I don't fully understand why they would want
to mimic a criminal biker organization," Yavapai County Sheriff Scott Mascher
said Friday. "It makes no sense to me, it was extremely poor judgment on their
individual parts, their collective judgment, it's very, very
unethical."
As is often the case, it wasn't the crime, but the clumsy
efforts to cover it up appear to have blown the lid off the Iron Brotherhood's
Arizona chapter and its police officer members.
If the officers in the
club had just called police themselves and been straightforward, the matter
would have been relatively minor, Mascher said.
The motorcycle club,
whose members used nicknames like Top Gun, Guido and Mongo, had been holding its
Christmas party at a bar where the booze was flowing freely, according to
Arizona Department of Public Safety reports released Thursday.
A group of
club members decided to go to another bar, and while there an intoxicated man
came up and began asking the club president about the patches on his vest.
Another member pushed the man away, and punches were thrown, leaving the man
with a smashed and bloody nose.
The president was Prescott Valley Police
Chief Bill Fessler, who left his job shortly after the brawl became public. Also
retiring were Yavapai County sheriff's Sgt. Bill Suttle and Capt. Marc Schmidt.
A sheriff's internal investigation shows both apparently obstructed police
investigating the fight.
The state police are asking prosecutors to
charge Suttle and Fessler with felonies for obstructing the investigation and
misdemeanors for lying about the involvement of their club. One officer who
responded to the fight said he believed the two were being "vague on
purpose."
Phoenix police officer Eric Amato and Greg Kaufmann, a
supervisor at an Ajo ambulance service, are accused of assault and disorderly
conduct. The report also recommended a charge of disorderly conduct against one
of the alleged victims, Justin Stafford.
Phoenix police are investigating
the man who allegedly threw the punch, Amato, but he remains on active
duty.
"We expect our officers to act appropriately, and that's what we're
looking at," Phoenix police spokesman Sgt. Tommy Thompson said.
The
Maricopa County attorney's office is reviewing the report and would file
charges, if warranted, spokesman Jerry Cobb said Friday.
One member of the
group who has since resigned, Prescott deputy police chief Andy Reinhardt, said
Friday that the clothing the members wore should not be used against
them.
"I will say I'm going to let people judge for themselves as to how
they perceive people based on how they dress," Reinhardt said. "I haven't read
the DPS report, and if there was any wrongdoing by officers, I personally don't
condone that myself."
Reinhardt said he wasn't in the bar when the brawl
broke out, and said if crimes were committed, people should be held
accountable.
"I have rode with the group in the past, and there's never
been this type of an issue whenever I rode with them," he said.
Police
officer motorcycle clubs that emulate the outlaw gang culture appeal to older
officers who miss the macho days when they could knock heads and not be held
accountable, said Mitch Librett, a former police officer who is now an associate
professor of criminal justice at Bridgewater State University in
Massachusetts.
"It's the vehicle for expressing certain opinions, views,
even prejudice that is no longer acceptable for police officers," Librett
said.
Efforts to reach Fessler and Amato weren't successful. Messages left
for Suttle and with Kaufmann's employer weren't returned.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/crime/article/Bar-fight-involving-biker-cops-baffles-sheriff-4467831.php#ixzz2Rcm15Afn
The sheriff in Yavapai County says he can't understand why law enforcement
officers were members of a motorcycle club that essentially mimicked a criminal
biker gang.
Two senior sheriff's deputies retired after a December bar
fight involving Iron Brotherhood Motorcycle Club members on Prescott's Whiskey
Row. The police chief in Prescott Valley also left the force.
Sheriff
Scott Mascher says the actions of his deputies and of senior veteran officers
from local, state and federal departments showed extremely poor judgment and
were unethical.
The Arizona Department of Public Safety wants four of the
club's members charged for the fight and for covering up the club's role. They
include former Prescott Valley chief Bill Fessler, Yavapai Sgt. Bill Suttle and
a Phoenix police officer.
http://azdailysun.com/news/state-and-regional/bar-fight-involving-biker-cops-baffles-sheriff/article_384f6b08-be7e-5c38-9eb9-ea2c5f1a1b91.html
