S5, Chapter 8: Sins of the Fathers

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Tapes from the Dark Side contains descriptions
of violence and sexuality. Listener discretion is

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advised. When Stacy Elligot turned twelve
years old, her father began molesting her.

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First. It started with weird little
sexual games that to a child's mind

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might seem silly or innocent. One
was called booby grabbers. He'd walk by

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and bump into my breasts or stuff
like that, Stacy said. Another one

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was a little more aggressive. Richard
Elegant called this one the short haired pull.

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In this game, he would reach
under his daughter's underwear and yank out

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a tuft pubic hair. It didn't
really think anything of it at first,

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until it started getting worse. Instead
of little grabs, he reached underneath my

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braw, grabbed me and made me
sit on his lap. I didn't like

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it, scared me. He used
to tell me that nobody could ever touch

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me that way, only he could. There was also the shower incident,

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in which Richard was fully nude showering
when he called Stacy in to bring him

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a washcloth. She brought it to
him, and he pulled her into the

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shower. Fully closed. He started
taking off his daughter's clothes and groping her.

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That event was cut short when Stacy's
mother opened the door and saw her

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daughter and a husband naked together.
She gasped and hurried away. Laurie Elligott

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refused to acknowledge the abuse that was
occurring right in front of her. Dick

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Elligott also gave his daughter erotic massages
with baby oil and which she massaged her

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breast and genitalia. One of the
most traumatic incidents of abuse was the mother

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daughter pictures that Dick Elligott took of
Stacy and Laurie. And while this permanently

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scarred the young Stacy and also produced
a definitive evidence of the abuse that would

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later help to put Richard Elligot in
jail, though my opinion for not long

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enough. Stacy recalls it like this. Her father approached her said he wanted

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to take nude photographs of her and
her mother together. Quote he asked me

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if I wanted to, and first
I was like, no, I don't,

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And then he asked me again,
and just the way he looked at

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me he scared me. I figured
if I did it and got it over

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with, maybe he'd leave me alone. The pictures are perverse. On the

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first day, Dick Elligott took over
one hundred photographs of his wife and their

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teenage daughter posed in a variety of
ways, standing, sitting with teddy bears,

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and their legs spread. A week
later and Dick wanted more pictures.

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This time, he instructed Stacy to
masturbate during the session. He said,

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I had to look like I was
enjoying what I did. I was scared.

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He kept telling me, if you're
going to do this, you're going

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to do it right, unless you
want to piss me off. Those were

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his exact words. There was another
incident that played a pivotal role in Stacy

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Elegant's decision to get help, and
that is when she saw her father playing

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the Booby Grabbers game with her next
youngest sister, who was thirteen. In

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an instant in her mind, she
saw all the abuse that she had endured

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for the past four years play out, except instead of her, it was

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her baby sister in her place.
This turned out to be the final straw

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for Stacy. She told one of
her friends at school, who advised her

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she didn't tell someone, the abuse
would only get worse. Imagine you're in

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Stacy's shoes, You're barely sixteen years
old and the people who are supposed to

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be protecting you are hurting you.
Not only that, but there your parents

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and your father, a police officer. His role as father is to protect

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you, and his role as employee
of the state is to protect you.

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Who could you possibly trust? But
on the night of July twenty seventh,

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nineteen ninety Stacy Elegant took a risk
and she told her aunt. The way

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the newspapers in Mesa, Arizona,
handled the case is quite upsetting, But

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even more upsetting was how Dick Eligant
and Laurie Elligot responded to the claims of

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abuse. The newspapers were barred from
naming Stacy as she was a miner,

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and if they referred to her as
the daughter of Dick, it would be

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effectively revealing her identity, and so
what little remained of Dick's reputation was partially

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saved at the time. In January
of ninety two, an article in Arizona

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Republic says Richard told a probation officer
that the thirteen year old boy he molested

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and ra aped with his wife was
not a victim, but instead quote got

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lucky. Richard also said his daughter
was the one who approached him about the

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pictures, and he said it was
part of her aspiration to one day be

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in Playboy magazine. Richard Elligott paints
himself as the victim, saying that through

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therapy he hopes that one day he
will understand quote why I allowed it.

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Throughout the early nineties, the Mason
newspapers ran similar stories where the anonymous Stacy

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was portrayed as a willing participant in
these sex acts, despite the fact that

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she was a miner, and that
any sexual activity that took place between the

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underage Stacy in the thirty plus year
old Richard and Laurie was, by a

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definition rape. Dick. Elligott's attorney, Jeff Jones, said, quote,

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these were consensual actions on the part
of teenagers. In this case, these

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were teenagers, not children. The
paper made no effort to interview Stacy,

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which they could have done, and
still kept anonymous. Later she said quote,

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I wasn't consenting. I was molested. The ensuing trial, as you

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might already be able to guess,
was not much more than a sham.

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Five of the most serious charges against
Richard Elligot were dropped. This included the

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charge of force general massage on his
daughter Originally, the prosecutors were trying to

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strike a deal in which Richard would
serve no jail time at all, but

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that plan was dropped after they received
a barrage of phone calls complaining about the

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plan for soft time. Richard Elligott
was sentenced to fourteen years in prison,

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but he ended up serving only nine
of those years. He was released in

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the year two thousand. Dick Elligott
is one of the worst types of offenders,

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someone who uses his position of privilege
to orchestrate the abuse of those closest

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to him. I have serious doubts
this type of person could ever be rehabilitated,

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but even if they could, it
would take years of intensive therapy.

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In my professional opinion, much longer
than nine years. Yet, the prosecutors

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in this case deemed Elligot's crimes quote
non dangerous and non repetitive. That's even

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though he had molested his daughter for
four years. That's even though he had

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begun to molest another daughter, and
that's even though he organized the rape of

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a thirteen year old neighbor who was
also a child. Richard Elligott's lawyers tried

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to write off the sexual abuse as
a harmless mistake. At one point,

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They argued, quote, we don't
have a situation where the daughter is in

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serious therapy and having nightmares. And
perhaps more disturbing than all of this,

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if you can imagine that as the
legal case against Richard's wife, Laurie Elligott,

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Laurie Elligott was an active and willing
participant in the sexual abuse of her

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daughter and the rape of a thirteen
year old neighbor. She pled guilty to

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child abuse and faced no jail time, only three years of probation. And

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then, in August of nineteen ninety
three, the unthinkable happened. An Arizona

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court ruled that Laurie Elligot could regain
permanent custody of her three youngest daughters,

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who were now fifteen, eleven,
and nine years of age. The only

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saving grace in this story might be
that Stacy was now eighteen and a legal

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adult. But the whole reason Stacy
had come forward in the first place was

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to protect her sisters, and now
they were in the custody of a known

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abuser who had faced almost zero penalty
for her abuse. Laurie said she knew

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the sexual games that Richard would play
with Stacy, but said, quote,

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he's not being sexual when he's doing
that tool. She also repeated the lie

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that it was Stacy's idea to take
the nude pictures. She said, quote,

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so I figured if she was going
to do it, I wanted to

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be in there with her. I
didn't look at it sexually. Linda Reichhardt,

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who was Laurie Elligott's one time appointed
counselor, said, quote, missus

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Elligot is not seen as a risk
to her children. She's not likely to

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reoffend on them, nor is she
likely to become established in a relationship with

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another man. All of this stands
in stark contrast to the story that the

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victim told Stacy Elligot. In an
interview with Phoenix New Times, she says,

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quote, I gave my mom a
chance before I turned my dad in.

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I said, help me, Mom. You know he's touching me,

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he's molesting me. Do you want
me to spell it out for you.

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She's had an excuse for everything.
My mom basically has no backbone. She

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totally turned her back on her kids. You can replace a husband, but

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not your kids. Both my parents
are sick. It's clear to me,

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beyond any shadow of a doubt,
that both of Stacy's parents were sick,

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But Richard's sickness went beyond pure sexual
perversions and to the point of violence.

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Around the time that Stacey he started
dating, her father pinned her against a

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wall and choked her. Stacy said, quote, he told me you can't

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see him anymore. He's not for
you. You don't understand how much I

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love you. I'm doing this for
you. She said that the choking left

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purple marks on her neck. What
is the reason that Richard Elligot served soft

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time? What is the reason that
Laurie Elligot served in no time? What

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is the reason that the names of
the police officers in Richard Elligot's sex diary

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were wided out? It all comes
back to the idea that a police department

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can investigate themselves. The Mesa Police
spokesman Mike hay Is at the time said,

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can we police ourselves well? When
people read the report in its entirety,

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they will conclude that the Masa PD
did it quite professionally and very well.

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Still to this day, we do
not know the full extent of the

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corruption of the nineteen ninety Masa sex
scandal. The three hundred plus page report

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was released by the department, but
it had been heavily redacted in it.

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We learned that the roots of this
corruption actually began in the late eighties with

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a man named Russ Statton. He
was also a former Masa PD cop who

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had also molested his stepdaughters. In
nineteen eighty eight, Russ Statton's name showed

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up in Richard's diary, and curiously, the one who tipped off police to

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Russ's abuse was Richard Elegant. When
Russ Statton left the department and went to

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prison, he warned the higher ups
at Masa PD that Richard himself was molesting

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his daughters, and he said,
quote, someday you'll be asking Dick Elegant

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these same questions. You'll see.
It's clear that the roots of the corruption

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and scandal took hold of the Masa
PD long before the Daniel Shaver case.

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In fact, long before Daniel Shaver
was even born. In the Masa PD,

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we were dealing with a legacy of
corruption, and in twenty sixteen,

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when Charles Langley and Philip Mitchell Brailsford
murdered Daniel Shaver, the very DNA of

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the department seemed engineered to avoid justice
and accountability. In this whole story,

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there actually is one good elegant and
his name was Larry. He's the first

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person that Stacy's aunt, Betty Joe
called when she heard about the abuse.

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He went straight to the assistant chief
of Mesa Police, who at the time

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was Mike Whalen. He told Mike
straight up that his brother Dick had been

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molesting his kids. He told them
there were hundreds of nude photographs. He

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told them there was a diary with
names in it, and he told them

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that it had to be a case
for another agency to Larry Elligot. This

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was Mike Whalen's response. Quote,
he told me in the strongest terms possible

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that Mesa was going to handle this
one within the department, and that was

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that. When her assistant chief tells
you something, there's not much argument you

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can make. Larry Elligott's wife,
Cathy was furious. She said, quote,

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when a nine year old girl tells
you that she saw her mom having

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sex on a living room floor the
man, and she saw her mom making

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out in the kitchen with Rick Keith, her damn husband's lieutenant, it makes

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you want to strangle a whole bunch
of people. Cathy was the one who

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actually organized the bombardment of the County
Attorney's office with dozens, perhaps hundreds of

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phone calls demanding that no plea bargains
be made in the Richard Elligott case,

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it's partly Larry and Cathy's efforts that
Richard Elligott faced any jail time at all.

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And if you look up this case
today, you'll see that County Attorney

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Rick Romley oversaw an internal affairs investigation. But that's partly a smoke and mirror

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act. Rick Romiley is a Mesa
County attorney. He's not an outside organization.

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He works for the City of Mesa. According to Masa's own police in

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an anonymous comment quote, having Rick
Romiley lead the internal affairs investigation is like

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asking the fox to card the henhouse. The unfortunate truth is that there had

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never been a proper investigation into the
Mesa Police department by an outside source until

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twenty seventeen and a man named Ramone
Batista coming up on tapes from the dark

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Side. I'm angry and I'm deeply
disappointed by what I saw in those videos.

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It's unacceptable and it needs to stop
immediately. Let's return to July twenty

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seventeen and the announcement that Ramone Bautista
would be taking over as the chief of

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Mesa Police. His goal clean up
the culture of non accountability, abuse of

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force, and scandal that seemed to
have run amuck in the department for decades.

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One of the key changes Bautista made
is bringing in independent investigators to review

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practices. One of the defense's arguments
used in the Daniel Shaverer case was that

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Mitch Brailsford had followed protocol perfectly.
He even said himself that if he could

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do it all over again, he
would do everything exactly the same, because

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that's how he'd been trained. Ramone
also instituted implicit pious training in de escalation

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training, both of which were sorely
needed in Mesa. A new use of

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force policy was implemented that explicitly prevented
police officers from striking people in the face

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we're head unless a suspect was being
combative. This seems like a common sense

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thing, but it was opposed by
Mesa police officers at the time. Bautista

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also helped to make requests for investigations
of excessive force more accessible. He helped

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to set up a web page and
also implemented a phone number that could be

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called twenty four seven. Here is
Ramone Bautista discussing changes in Masa PD in

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response to the recent barrage of bodycam
footage showing police officers violently beating on our

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suspects. This specific media appearance occurred
shortly after the video the anonymous fifteen year

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old being beaten well handcuffed went viral. The speech by Chief Bautista was cited

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as a pivotal moment in which the
police officers of Mesa say they lost faith

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in his ability as a leader.
Which is unfortunate because I don't hear Ramone

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Batista say anything here that is particularly
offensive to police or anyone. The police

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in Mesa had become accustomed to a
chief who sided with them every step of

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the way, one who encouraged them
to purge their own disciplinary files in one

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who enabled a culture of corruption and
abuse. Ramone put his foot down and

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made it known he would be a
different kind of chief, one who not

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only talked about integrity and accountability,
but one who expected it and even demanded

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it. This week, the police
apartment has been a news for all the

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wrong reasons. Over the last few
days, we've seen several videos showing situations

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involving our offers. They are disturbing
and they will not be tolerated. As

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the chief of this department, I
want to speak openly and directly with you

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and let this community and the nation
know what I'm doing about it. First,

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let me address the video that we
released yesterday showing a fifteen year old

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and our officers. On May seventeenth, officers were investigating an armed robbery and

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located a suspect who was arrested and
subsequently charged with multiple counts, including armed

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robbery and aggravated assault with a deadly
weapon. In the body camera footage released

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yesterday, you see the interaction after
the young man was placed in handcuffs.

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The level of force used by our
officers was brought to my attention, and

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as a result, an internal investigation
was initiated by the department. Please know

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that the actions shown on that video
and all these recent videos, do not

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reflect the vast majority of the men
and women of the Mesa Police Department.

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Our officers work every day to keep
our community safe, and they put their

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lives on a line to protect our
city. I'm proud to be their chief,

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and I owe them my utmost effort
to make this department the very best

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that it can be, and that's
exactly what I'm doing today. I'm angry

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and I'm deeply disappointed by what I
saw in those videos. It's unacceptable and

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it needs to stop immediately. It's
essential that when this community interacts with our

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officers, they are treated with the
utmost professionalism, no matter the situation.

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Starting today, I've asked the National
Police Executive Research for HIM, based in

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Washington, d C. To conduct
a comprehensive and fully independent investigation looking into

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our use of force events over the
past three years, as well as our

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policies, procedure, and training.
It's imperative that a completely autonomous organization from

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outside of our city conducts such a
thorough examination. These investigators will shine a

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glaring light on the areas where we
have fallen short. The sanctity of human

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life is at the heart of the
mission of policing, folks. That's the

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whole point. Along with pinpointing our
challenges and helping us fix them, it's

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essential that we continue building and rebuilding
trust, dignity, and respect within our

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community. I've wanted to be a
police officer since I was a kid growing

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up in Tucson. I knew that
serving my community and keeping people safe was

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my calling. I've loved being a
cop ever since the day I started back

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in nineteen eighty six, and it
is still my great, great honor to

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do this job to help make our
city safe. My team and I will

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work every single day to make these
make sure these situations don't happen again.

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And then in twenty nineteen, barely
two years after he took over the department,

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Ramone Patissa resigned What happened in those
two years. In June of twenty

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nineteen, five months before Ramone's resignation, the police union held a vote.

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According to Arizona Central, this kind
of vote was nearly unheard of in Masa's

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history. It was an emergency ballot
of no confidence for their commander in chief

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Ramone Patissa. Nate Gavert, who
serves as the president of the Mesa Police

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Association, said quote, Ramone is
no longer welcome in the Masa Police Department.

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He's no longer welcome in our homes, and we would like him to

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leave. Five hundred and sixty four
police department employees cast their ballots, and

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a stunning ninety five percent vote of
no confidence was recorded. It's interesting to

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note that Nate Gavert was also starkly
against the practice of external review of police

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brutality cases. He said the opinion
of outsiders was irrelevant because they judged things

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unfairly. In what did Nate think
of the new implicitious training, critical decision

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making training, de escalation and non
lethal force training. Well, he called

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these things a waste of time and
money. He also called them politically motivated.

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Here is Nate Gavert himself talking about
his role as head of the Masa

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Police Union, also known as the
Mason Police Association or MPa. This clip

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is from a podcast called Boys in
Blue, of which Nate was a guest

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in July of twenty twenty. So
you represent the police officers and is it

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salary negotiations or how does all that
work? It was everything from the first

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day sworn police officers to the chief
of police if they were remember, we

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would represent them, and disciplinary cases, negotiations with the city for any benefits,

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pay, working conditions. About sixteen
years doing that and then also being

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the president for the last four years. I think from what I've observed,

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sometimes you know, you got to
give the guys take care of the officers

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rights when he's disciplined or something as
much as anybody else's. People forget that,

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and you see abuses on both sides, I think. I mean,

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you see especially some of these here, Oh my god, they fire somebody

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before they because they saw a little
piece of a clip of a video and

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they fire them. They don't even
got the whole story yet, you know,

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right then there's other guys. Go
ahead, Nate, Yeah, even

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when they have the whole story,
it just it looks ugly. Force looks

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terrible no matter how it is,
whether it's one hundred percent righteous or questionable,

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it looks bad. And um and
I've seen, um, you know,

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some of the some of the worst
leaders I've seen in my career,

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and then I've also seen some of
the best. Yeah, you know.

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And sometimes the thought of a police
union or any unions or we're there to

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get our officers out of trouble,
and that's completely inaccurate. Um, you

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know, we're there to you know, we'll we'll fight to the end to

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make sure that our members are treated
fairly and equally. And that's it,

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Like, that's that's what they pay
their membership dues. We're not there to

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find a loophole to get them out
of trouble. Um, I'm glad you

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said that, Nate, because a
lot of people have the impression that you're

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just to fight for the guy.
No, man, if he's guilty or

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no matter what he did, you're
gonna just stand up and say he didn't

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do anything. Well, and so
I'm glad I'm glad you expanded on that

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that it's not so much that Okay, if the guy is screwed up,

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man, he's screwed up, and
he's he's got to pay the consequences.

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But hey, let's the consequences have
to match the what the procedures call for.

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I mean, yeah, a lot
of times you see, Okay,

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you can run a ten second clip
on the news at night and it just

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looks like, oh my gosh,
what's the matter of that guy? Well,

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you weren't there, honey, you
didn't see the other five minutes on

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either side of that little clip,
and you did you know, you don't

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know the whole story. It's nice
to hear Nate Gavert, the president of

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the MASA Police Union, say that
they're not there simply to find loopholes.

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And then if a member did clearly
violate the law. They will be held

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accountable. But what did Nate Gavert
have to say about the Daniel Shavers shooting,

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The shooting that Republicans and Democrats alike
looked at as a clear abuse of

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police power, the one that the
entire country seemed to view with disdain.

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We are relieved he had not surprised
of the not guilty verdict. The jury

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short deliberation directly reflects the lack of
evidence against mister Brailsford. We are overwhelmed

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with emotions and have continued faith that
the justice system will not be directed by

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political pressure, but only by a
clear application of law and facts. This

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case should have never been charged by
Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery. Not only

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did it damage a promising young officer's
career, it gave false hope to the

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family of Daniel Shaver. Instead of
having the difficult conversation that a lawful use

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of force occurred, mister Montgomery led
them to believe it was unjust. We

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are a nation of law. Emotion
and empathy cannot carry the day. The

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MASA Police Association will continue to support
mister Brailsford throughout his termination appeal process.

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Thank you a couple of months or
the vote of no confidence in Chief Ramon

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Bautista took place. In the spring
of twenty nineteen, the union paid for

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an anonymous survey of their officers to
gauge the department's morale. These answers were

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meant to be kept confidential, but
someone leaked them to the press and now

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we have access to the unfiltered inner
thoughts of over five hundred of Mesa Police

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Department employees. At the end of
the survey was a section for comments.

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Over twenty pages of negative remarks about
the new chief were submitted. I've read

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through every single comment and I won't
share all of them with you, but

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here are a few that stood out. Chief Bautista has single handedly broken this

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department. He has destroyed everything great
about Masa PD, and the assistant chief

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is just as evil. They both
need to resign before they do any more

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damage. Officers are afraid mister Bautista
will sell them out to increase his five

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minutes of natural fame. I've been
with Mesa for many years and I have

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never seen morale this low. The
chief has cut our training so we can

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spend more money on trainings that are
politically motivated. This chief is not interested

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in what's best for officers, for
those he leads nearly as much as he

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is interested in satisfying the public.
Cares more about community perception than facts,

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and it's scary working for him.
I pray I can find alternative employment with

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similar compensation so my family and I
are protected as these are witch hunt internal

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affairs investigation. I have over twenty
years experience as a police officer and have

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never seen a chief of police like
this. The current MESA Chief of Police

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should not be a police officer at
all. He has belittled, betrayed,

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and ruined the lives of many outstanding
MESA PD officers. He is an embarrassment

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to law enforcement nationwide. For the
past year, officers collectively have felt there

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being big brothered on everything they do, random reviews of acts on bodycam footage,

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also all of the audits of reports, SUPs, etc. Etc.

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Officers are just tired of the burdensome
administrative requirements. No confidence in Chief Batista.

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He has made the already tough job
of being a police officer much harder.

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Rather than easing the stress we take
in this department will continue to spiral

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down in regards morale and productivity as
long as Chief Bautista is here. Chief

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Bautista does not have a leadership style. He rules like a king and has

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a road to trust, morale,
and confidence in The Chief has an out

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of touch mentality concerning community policing.
His initial thought as the officer is wrong

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and the criminal is right before an
investigation can be conducted. He's more concerned

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with the thoughts of the liberal radicals
than with his officers. I am very,

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very very upset with our chief and
the way he has treated us over

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the last year. He is in
this solely for himself and his own interests.

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I can't wait for the day he
leaves this department so we can get

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someone in charge who has our back. Employ a charlatan who fosters a perverse

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ideology, one that cultivates fear,
indecisiveness, and discontentment among the troops.

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The main problem with the Chief,
who is nothing but a politician or his

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decisions are fluid based on what the
public wants and what he feels makes him

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look better in the public size.
His condemnation of officers before any due process

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is despicable and unforgivable. Chief is
a liberal snowflake who cares more about public

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image than his officers. He is
a cancer on this department. His policies

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and danger officers, and his conduct
proves he has no spine. To anyone

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reading this, please help us replace
Chief Romone Batista with a competent chief who

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cares about bettering mesa and not his
own interests before his ideas get an officer

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killed. Chief has created an environment
in our community where criminals are the victims

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and the officers are watching. Hello
officers, criminal conject at the highly slanted

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media where the black lives matter.
I've been through many chiefs in my twenty

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years. This one is the absolute
worst. He is absolute poison to this

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department in this city. And yet
among the hundreds of negative comments, there

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00:31:15.680 --> 00:31:19.160
were a few that seem to have
a more objective view of the situation,

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one almost favorable to Chief Batista quote. As an organization, we need to

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be unified. We need to stop
looking at the past and forgive people of

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their mistakes. Yes, things were
done wrong, but if we keep talking

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about the past, we will never
have a good future as a department.

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Time to move forward and hope the
chief learned from what was said and done

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in the past. I'm sure he
has our best interests in his thoughts,

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and we need to give him a
chance to redeem himself. I'm tired of

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00:31:48.799 --> 00:31:52.920
listening to all the complaints, cries
and judgment issues. We are all not

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00:31:53.160 --> 00:31:59.039
perfect. I prefer you all spend
my union dues on something that benefits me

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instead of arguing and crying over the
past. And the last commonal read is

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00:32:05.039 --> 00:32:07.359
long, but I think it's important
for us to hear this so we can

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remember that there are rational, good
officers in the Masa PD. Under the

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previous admin, our moral compass went
sideways. We had an assistant chief that

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emphasized kicking ass and scaring the public
in a chief who turned a blind eye

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to everything. Our academy went from
training guardians to training spartans. Our detectives

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00:32:29.440 --> 00:32:34.440
became lazy, and civilian staff became
bitter. The line level officers were happy

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because we had someone speaking for us, but in the end, neither Milstead

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nor Silbert really cared about anyone but
themselves, and now we face federal criminal

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probes, lawsuits, and civil right
inquiries. All of this because Silbert wanted

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to quote kick ass incomes Batista,
who should not have been selected by the

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city, especially because they knew all
about the brewing issues. He comes into

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00:32:58.680 --> 00:33:01.160
a mess and he's now in charge
of dealing with it. He has to

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make decisive moves to keep the city
happy, the public trust, and to

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keep the DJ off our backs.
I don't like some of the things he

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says or does, but then again, I never agree one percent with any

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00:33:13.880 --> 00:33:17.119
chief. I don't think he's trying
to quote screw the department. I don't

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see him as some kind of quote
libtard, as he's been called. He

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00:33:22.559 --> 00:33:25.680
was served a floating dumpster fire and
told to deal with it. The city

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00:33:25.720 --> 00:33:30.440
council screwed us by not allowing Dvorak
to write the ship before hiring an outside

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chief. The city council and manager
screwed Bautista by hiring him and throwing him

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into a furnace. The Masa Police
Association are screwing us by convincing officers Bautista

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is the bad guy and throwing around
phrases like vote of no confidence. Our

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00:33:46.519 --> 00:33:52.039
own command staff is screwing us by
making random commander and lieutenant changes, disrupting

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operations, and making decisions that are
not only bad but nonsense. We don't

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00:33:58.440 --> 00:34:01.799
promote leaders. We promote takers and
people managers, and then act like we

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00:34:01.839 --> 00:34:07.279
can just put them in any position
and they'll adjust. We have supervisors that

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00:34:07.319 --> 00:34:10.320
wouldn't be qualified to run the balloon
machine at Walmart, but they're promoted and

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00:34:10.400 --> 00:34:15.559
favored by the fourth floor. I'm
almost done with my time being a police

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00:34:15.599 --> 00:34:19.360
officer. It has been the greatest
honor of my life. But the way

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we've been going the last ten years, and the way things are with these

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00:34:22.519 --> 00:34:25.840
new supervisors, makes me not want
to be an officer anymore. I deal

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00:34:25.880 --> 00:34:30.599
with the stress of critical incidents on
the road and the stress of incompetent leadership,

403
00:34:30.800 --> 00:34:43.039
warring police unions, and federal scrutiny. A few bad apples, rotten

404
00:34:43.079 --> 00:34:46.920
apple quickly infects its neighbor. It's
a saying that was first recorded as far

405
00:34:46.960 --> 00:34:52.320
back as the thirteen hundreds, a
turn of phrase that has its basis in

406
00:34:52.360 --> 00:34:57.679
fact. As an apple ages,
it releases ethylene gas, which accelerates aging

407
00:34:57.760 --> 00:35:02.599
and in turn increases ethylene product in
any nearby apples. If this continues unchecked,

408
00:35:02.599 --> 00:35:07.760
an entire bushel can turn bad quite
quickly. If you remove the bad

409
00:35:07.800 --> 00:35:12.039
apple in time, then the bunch
might be saved. But what happens when

410
00:35:12.079 --> 00:35:16.320
a few bad apples aren't removed.
Whoever is left holding the bag will pick

411
00:35:16.400 --> 00:35:22.199
through the bushel for the few remaining
good ones and ditch the rest. And

412
00:35:22.320 --> 00:35:25.599
this is what we see with police
communities. Once the bushel has turned rotten,

413
00:35:25.840 --> 00:35:31.079
the good apples will inevitably get eaten
alive, and the decay spreads like

414
00:35:31.199 --> 00:35:38.920
a cancer. The Mesa Police Department
is investigating two former officers, both caught

415
00:35:39.039 --> 00:35:44.840
stalking out the area near Chief Roman
Battista's house. It comes as the Mesa

416
00:35:44.880 --> 00:35:49.239
Police union is holding a no confidence
vote in the chief. ABC fifteen Zach

417
00:35:49.239 --> 00:35:52.559
Crenshaw joins us live outside Masa PD
and Zach, the department has launched their

418
00:35:52.559 --> 00:35:57.960
own investigation. I understand into the
surveillance. That's right, Katie. According

419
00:35:58.039 --> 00:36:02.800
to an internal email, the departments
Intelligence and counter Terrorism Unit is investigating this.

420
00:36:02.920 --> 00:36:07.440
They're looking into why two former Mesa
police officers were sitting in cars for

421
00:36:07.599 --> 00:36:14.079
hours outside of Chief Fatista's home.
One of those officers was also the former

422
00:36:14.119 --> 00:36:16.639
president of the Mesa Police Union.
Now, while they were doing what appears

423
00:36:16.679 --> 00:36:22.360
to be surveillance, the current Mesa
Police union was conducting a survey about morale

424
00:36:22.679 --> 00:36:25.760
and confidence in the chief. On
Friday, the union began holding a no

425
00:36:25.920 --> 00:36:31.480
confidence vote in the chief and has
not been shy about their displeasure and goal

426
00:36:31.599 --> 00:36:37.000
of ousting Chief Batista. But the
current Mesa Police Union president Nate Gaffert,

427
00:36:37.079 --> 00:36:40.119
told me they are in no way
connected to the incident outside the chief's home.

428
00:36:40.320 --> 00:36:45.440
But the incident is still raising eyebrows. I can't say if he was

429
00:36:45.480 --> 00:36:46.679
on his own time, I can't
say if he was sent I can't say

430
00:36:46.679 --> 00:36:50.840
if he was being paid. But
for me, with everything going on,

431
00:36:51.159 --> 00:36:55.199
that's very peculiar. We are working
to get in contact with those two former

432
00:36:55.280 --> 00:37:00.639
officers to hear why they were outside
Chief Batista's home. For live in Mason's

433
00:37:00.639 --> 00:37:05.280
at Crenshaw, ABC fifteen, Arizona
Zach thanks a top law enforcement officer offering

434
00:37:05.320 --> 00:37:09.039
you inside into troubles at Mason Police
sank Chief Bautista inherited a department in serious

435
00:37:09.079 --> 00:37:15.800
trouble. A chief before Batista had
purged officers disciplinary files just one of the

436
00:37:15.840 --> 00:37:21.280
signs that the department needed a change
in culture. In addition to stalking his

437
00:37:21.400 --> 00:37:25.280
house, the Mason Police Union raised
thirty thousand dollars to launch a campaign to

438
00:37:25.400 --> 00:37:30.639
pressure city council to vote to remove
Bautista. Their ninety five percent vote of

439
00:37:30.679 --> 00:37:37.119
no confidence sent a strong message,
but in practical matters it accomplished nothing.

440
00:37:37.480 --> 00:37:42.079
They needed higher ups to carry out
their bidding. They built a website,

441
00:37:42.400 --> 00:37:46.760
designed a billboard, and prepared to
launch a massive media campaign. But before

442
00:37:46.840 --> 00:37:53.400
that could come, as you already
know, Ramon Bautista resigned. Another good

443
00:37:53.440 --> 00:38:05.039
apple gone. We might never know
the real reason why Ramone Bautista resigned from

444
00:38:05.079 --> 00:38:08.320
the Mesa PD. It surely had
a lot to do with the no confidence

445
00:38:08.400 --> 00:38:13.920
vote in the stocking, but the
real answer might go deeper than that.

446
00:38:15.239 --> 00:38:19.960
In November of twenty nineteen, Ramone
signed a confidentiality agreement with the City of

447
00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:24.400
Mesa in exchange for six months salary, which was eighty nine thousand dollars.

448
00:38:25.159 --> 00:38:30.599
I resigned to pursue other interests and
opportunities, and I think the city for

449
00:38:30.639 --> 00:38:35.920
the opportunity to have served. That's
the only official answer we have now from

450
00:38:36.000 --> 00:38:39.880
Ramone. As of twenty twenty one, Ramone Bautista's the acting police chief of

451
00:38:39.880 --> 00:38:45.559
Santa Monica, California. When Ramone
left Mesa, Part one offenses, which

452
00:38:45.559 --> 00:38:51.000
include murder, rape, aggravator assault, robbery, burglary, and larceny,

453
00:38:51.280 --> 00:39:01.079
were at an all time low of
twenty three events per one thousand residents.

454
00:39:02.239 --> 00:39:07.559
The music you're hearing right now is
that of Laney Sweet. In addition to

455
00:39:07.639 --> 00:39:10.400
being a duela, a mother,
a daughter, and a wife, she's

456
00:39:10.440 --> 00:39:19.480
also an incredibly talented musician. Laney
Sweet is still fighting for justice for her

457
00:39:19.519 --> 00:39:23.559
deceased husband, Daniel Shaver. While
Daniel's parents settled their civil case in twenty

458
00:39:23.599 --> 00:39:28.719
twenty one for one and a half
million dollars, Laney continues to fight for

459
00:39:28.760 --> 00:39:31.880
a trial. So far, she
has refused to lower her damage's claim for

460
00:39:32.039 --> 00:39:37.360
less than seventy five million dollars,
and quite frankly, I hope she gets

461
00:39:37.360 --> 00:39:42.199
every cent. In June of twenty
twenty two, Laney gave us an update

462
00:39:42.280 --> 00:39:49.920
on TikTok after months of having taken
a break from social media, and i'd

463
00:39:49.920 --> 00:39:55.519
do a check in. Haven't done
one of these in a while, which

464
00:39:55.559 --> 00:40:00.800
maybe I'll explain soon. I have
been off social idea for a bit,

465
00:40:00.559 --> 00:40:09.679
but today I went to work and
came home and Natalie had been doing therapy

466
00:40:09.760 --> 00:40:22.800
through telehealth and I was immediately greeted
upon coming home to her talking about having

467
00:40:22.840 --> 00:40:31.960
feelings of wanting to hurt herself.
And so the therapist and I talked after

468
00:40:32.599 --> 00:40:39.320
they got off their session and came
up with a safety plan and evaluated the

469
00:40:40.280 --> 00:40:45.760
risk and it's minimal. It was
just the u I guess, the desire

470
00:40:46.039 --> 00:40:52.639
to talk about it, not to
act on it, and so oh,

471
00:40:52.960 --> 00:40:58.440
and it's like, there's always a
direct correlation to my children having a harder

472
00:40:58.519 --> 00:41:06.679
time when there's chaos happening with court
and MESA police department coming after us and

473
00:41:06.760 --> 00:41:15.320
traumatizing us over and over for six
years now. So I come home to

474
00:41:15.440 --> 00:41:22.519
that handle that situation and my nervousnesstem
is activated. I'm emotional. I'm so

475
00:41:22.639 --> 00:41:29.800
anxious that I need to take my
medicine to try to be able to breathe,

476
00:41:29.840 --> 00:41:35.920
not some only reason I can do
this in this moment. And then

477
00:41:35.960 --> 00:41:40.360
I'm just hit with the feels because
today's supposed to be Danny Knight's anniversary and

478
00:41:44.239 --> 00:41:49.960
instead I'm dealing with my child who
wants to hurt herself because of the pain

479
00:41:50.199 --> 00:41:54.400
of her life and the trauma that
has been caused, and no one's been

480
00:41:54.440 --> 00:42:02.719
held accountable, and it's just so
much, and it's so heavy, and

481
00:42:04.360 --> 00:42:14.880
for the last year I was intimidated
into silence out of protecting my children and

482
00:42:15.039 --> 00:42:22.800
myself in our livelihood and our lives. And I don't want to live in

483
00:42:22.840 --> 00:42:25.239
fear anymore. I want to speak
out on the damage that Masa Police Department

484
00:42:25.280 --> 00:42:30.360
as doing to our family because they
got away with murdering my husband and they

485
00:42:30.400 --> 00:42:37.199
continue to get away with it.
They have had no action or consequence to

486
00:42:37.320 --> 00:42:43.679
face and here we are six years
later, suffering. It's been six years

487
00:42:43.719 --> 00:42:47.719
since Daniel Shaver's death. In four
years since when the Department of Justice subpointed

488
00:42:47.840 --> 00:42:52.480
the Masa PD for the records in
regards to the federal investigation, there's been

489
00:42:52.559 --> 00:42:58.480
no update there, but there is
still hope. In the four years following

490
00:42:58.519 --> 00:43:02.079
the execution of Daniel Shaver, where
there's been twenty three police shootings in Mesa.

491
00:43:02.199 --> 00:43:07.559
Over the thousands of arrests, fifteen
hundred of them have included use of

492
00:43:07.679 --> 00:43:12.360
force such as Taser, canine,
neck restraint or impact weapon such as a

493
00:43:12.400 --> 00:43:16.719
beanbag gun. In those four years, Masa received seven hundred and ten complaints

494
00:43:16.719 --> 00:43:22.960
of police misconduct and according to Police
scorecard dot Org, Mesa uses more force

495
00:43:23.039 --> 00:43:30.920
per arrest than seventy four percent of
police departments nationwide. Philip Mitchell Brailsford continues

496
00:43:30.960 --> 00:43:35.280
to receive his two thousand, five
hundred and sixty nine dollars per month from

497
00:43:35.280 --> 00:43:38.559
the government for a so called PTSD, and as far as we know,

498
00:43:38.960 --> 00:43:45.079
Charles Langley is still living in the
Philippines. In a bit of positive news,

499
00:43:45.559 --> 00:43:49.880
in the fall of twenty twenty,
the Mesa City Council voted three to

500
00:43:49.960 --> 00:43:53.960
two to create a Community Police Oversight
Board. This would be the first time

501
00:43:54.199 --> 00:44:00.559
an official independent police auditor was established
in Mesa. In a statement to the

502
00:44:00.599 --> 00:44:05.400
paper, Jeanette Castanios, who is
a member of the Citizen Public Safety Oversight

503
00:44:05.480 --> 00:44:09.639
Task Force, said quote, I'm
so relieved now the real work begins.

504
00:44:23.639 --> 00:44:29.880
Our show is primarily supported by our
Patreon backers. If you like the stories

505
00:44:29.920 --> 00:44:34.280
we tell here, then consider signing
up for our Patreon. It truly makes

506
00:44:34.320 --> 00:44:37.880
a huge difference for the future financial
security of the show. In return,

507
00:44:38.000 --> 00:44:44.159
we have all of our episodes on
their ad free early release and bonus episodes

508
00:44:44.239 --> 00:44:49.360
too. We have some cool bonus
stuff plans, specifically for the Daniel Shaver

509
00:44:49.559 --> 00:44:54.719
season, potentially an interview with Laney
An interview with lawyer and legal expert Bob

510
00:44:54.800 --> 00:44:59.880
Mada to dig a little deeper into
some of the legal aspects of this case.

511
00:45:00.280 --> 00:45:05.559
And we also have some side stories
that are fascinating but that didn't quite

512
00:45:05.599 --> 00:45:09.239
find a proper place in the main
season. One of those stories is about

513
00:45:09.320 --> 00:45:14.000
Nate Gaffer, the former head of
the Masa Police Union, in one of

514
00:45:14.000 --> 00:45:19.760
his first undercover jobs as a cop, which was bizarrely enough, going undercover

515
00:45:19.920 --> 00:45:22.760
to entrap gay men who are trying
to hook up in a Macy's bathroom.

516
00:45:22.840 --> 00:45:30.079
It's a very weird story. Another
is about a Masa medical examiner who was

517
00:45:30.159 --> 00:45:35.280
revealed to have taken a patient's brain
home to his family, where he let

518
00:45:35.320 --> 00:45:42.679
his kids play with that brain and
photograph them playing with it. Those are

519
00:45:42.679 --> 00:45:45.800
just a couple of these short side
stories we have planned for the season,

520
00:45:46.079 --> 00:45:52.039
which you can hear exclusively on Patreon. It takes less than a minute to

521
00:45:52.079 --> 00:46:00.159
sign up. Just go to patreon
dot com slash Tapes from the Dark Side.

522
00:46:00.239 --> 00:46:05.639
A big thank you to everyone who
supports us on Patreon, especially to

523
00:46:05.679 --> 00:46:12.280
our newest five dollars member Brian Galasso, into everyone who continues to support us

524
00:46:12.320 --> 00:46:15.840
on the producer tier level. Thank
you guys so much. Greg B,

525
00:46:16.400 --> 00:46:22.199
Christy Ramsher, jac Leavy, Erica
Walters, Joel Simonson, Sherry Sly,

526
00:46:22.719 --> 00:46:30.280
Angela MF and Alexis Kathleen. Here
your name red right here on the podcast.

527
00:46:30.519 --> 00:46:36.920
Go sign up today Patreon dot com
slash Tapes from the dark Side.

528
00:46:38.079 --> 00:46:44.599
We're releasing a one time print of
a Justice for Daniel Shaver t shirt.

529
00:46:45.000 --> 00:46:49.360
Everyone at the producer tier will get
one. For everyone else, There'll be

530
00:46:49.480 --> 00:46:53.719
thirty dollars and all the earnings will
go directly to Laney. Please consider buying

531
00:46:53.800 --> 00:46:59.360
one. To see the design,
go to Instagram at the dark Side Pod

532
00:46:59.679 --> 00:47:04.679
or Facebook dot com slash the dark
Side Pod. Thank you to all the

533
00:47:04.719 --> 00:47:09.440
incredible music artists who provided music for
this season, especially twenty six hundred,

534
00:47:09.440 --> 00:47:15.920
who allowed us to adapt his song
for our main theme to Augusta Trevororum into

535
00:47:15.960 --> 00:47:20.559
Emmanuel Witsthom. A list of all
the music credits for this episode and this

536
00:47:20.719 --> 00:47:25.519
season can be found in the show
notes. Shows like ours would not be

537
00:47:25.599 --> 00:47:31.079
possible without dozens of other people who
have come before us and researched the same

538
00:47:31.119 --> 00:47:37.480
material, whether that be other podcasts, other YouTube channels, or reporters.

539
00:47:37.000 --> 00:47:40.400
And I just want to take a
moment to thank some of those that we

540
00:47:40.440 --> 00:47:45.519
have used in this season. The
YouTube channel Video Leak Police, who did

541
00:47:45.559 --> 00:47:51.360
a documentary on the Daniel Shaver shooting. The Unregistered Podcast, who did a

542
00:47:51.440 --> 00:47:55.440
two and a half hour interview with
Landy Sweet, The Phoenix New Times newspaper

543
00:47:55.920 --> 00:48:02.440
for their reporting on the Elegant sex
scandal into Melissa Blazias of ABC fifteen.

544
00:48:04.039 --> 00:48:07.519
Links to all of those people and
their platforms can be found in our show

545
00:48:07.559 --> 00:48:12.880
notes. Please go follow them,
support them. Without them, our show

546
00:48:12.960 --> 00:48:21.400
wouldn't be possible. The ending of
a season is always bittersweet to me.

547
00:48:21.800 --> 00:48:27.039
It's like saying hello and goodbye at
the same time. I'm presenting this story

548
00:48:27.119 --> 00:48:31.639
to you that I've spent months researching, and as I tell the story before

549
00:48:31.679 --> 00:48:35.800
you even hear it, I feel
like I'm talking with you. I'm having

550
00:48:36.119 --> 00:48:40.039
a dialogue, though it's one sided, and now I finally get to present

551
00:48:40.119 --> 00:48:44.920
that to you. But at the
same time, once I present that and

552
00:48:45.039 --> 00:48:51.320
it's published and it starts getting downloaded, I've actually already said goodbye. I've

553
00:48:51.320 --> 00:48:54.679
already recorded what I want to say, and I've spoken everything that's on my

554
00:48:54.760 --> 00:48:59.679
mind as far as this story goes, and that's why I love to hear

555
00:48:59.760 --> 00:49:02.880
from what you thought of the material
we covered, how it affected you,

556
00:49:04.400 --> 00:49:08.079
how it maybe changed you or maybe
change some of your ideas, or maybe

557
00:49:08.119 --> 00:49:13.079
didn't change some of your ideas.
Either way, I do love to hear

558
00:49:13.119 --> 00:49:15.840
back from you. You can send
me an email. I respond and read

559
00:49:15.880 --> 00:49:21.320
everything you send me. Tapes from
the Dark Side Pod at gmail dot com.

560
00:49:21.519 --> 00:49:23.960
You can send me a message on
Instagram or Facebook, or you can

561
00:49:24.039 --> 00:49:30.760
join our Facebook discussion group where sometimes
we talk about the cases or just share

562
00:49:30.800 --> 00:49:34.960
about what's going on in our own
lives. This doesn't have to be a

563
00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:38.119
two way conversation. You can simply
listen to the episode and move on with

564
00:49:38.159 --> 00:49:43.599
your life. But if you do
have something to say or you want to

565
00:49:43.599 --> 00:49:46.239
share your thoughts, then I'm here. I want to hear what you have

566
00:49:46.320 --> 00:49:52.960
to say, so reach out anytime, and I look forward to possibly hearing

567
00:49:52.000 --> 00:51:12.199
from you. He was ridiculously silly
and would constantly do or like sing,

568
00:51:12.320 --> 00:51:17.199
break into like song with like silly
stuff to make us laugh. I can

569
00:51:17.280 --> 00:51:20.599
think of something that comes off the
top of my head, and I have

570
00:51:20.639 --> 00:51:22.800
no idea where this comes from,
but he would sing this song and he

571
00:51:22.840 --> 00:51:25.519
would change the name depending on who
are you singing it too. Sometimes he

572
00:51:25.559 --> 00:51:30.199
would say Pouncy, which was our
cat from Game of Thrones, or Pounce,

573
00:51:30.760 --> 00:51:35.559
or he would say Laney or Natalie
your emory. But it always brought

574
00:51:35.599 --> 00:51:38.519
a smile to my face. And
he would be like, Laney, you're

575
00:51:38.639 --> 00:51:44.599
my night in shining Armor and I
love you, and just like be ridiculous

576
00:51:44.960 --> 00:51:49.239
so silly things like that. I
don't know. He was just like kind

577
00:51:49.280 --> 00:51:52.880
of goofy and just like always like
laughing about something or making people laugh.

578
00:51:53.719 --> 00:51:59.239
So just yeah, something like that. If anybody has any idea where that

579
00:51:59.280 --> 00:52:00.559
song comes from, let me know. I've never actually looked it up,

580
00:52:00.639 --> 00:52:02.880
but he used to sing it to
us all the time, and it's always

581
00:52:02.880 --> 00:52:21.880
made a smile. Lady, I'm
your night and shining arm and I love

582
00:52:21.960 --> 00:52:38.719
you. You have made me what
I am and I'm your my love.

583
00:52:42.280 --> 00:52:51.519
There's so many ways I want to
say I love you. Let me hold

584
00:52:51.639 --> 00:52:57.000
you in my arms, boor have
a moment