By Bob Christie
Associated Press
PHOENIX » 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.
Associated Press writers
Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Linda Ashton in Phoenix, and Susan Montoya
Bryan in Albuquerque, N.M., contributed to this report.
