opinion

Senator files bill after son-in-law lands in hot water

Turns out Sen. Sylvia Allen is a champion of unions. Who knew?

The "constitutional conservative" best known for her efforts to create state militias and close public meetings is hoping this year to boost protections in the future for detention officers who find themselves in hot water.

Like, say, her son-in-law.

Last year, then-Navajo County Supervisor Allen tried to interfere with an internal investigation into her son-in-law's conduct with female inmates in the Navajo County jail.

This year, Allen has moved on to the state Senate where she sponsored a bill aimed at ensuring that others don't have to endure what she sees as a witch hunt against her son-in-law.

"I just did not know what to do to help," she recently told the Senate Public Safety, Military and Technology Committee, which approved a watered-down version of her bill after she read a letter from her daughter about the family's ordeal. "There was no way to help. It was hard watching."

Hard enough that I suppose Allen figured it was OK to use her position as an elected county official to intervene.

"She was interfering in the investigation," Navajo County Sheriff K.C. Clark told me this week. "At one point, I had to go to the county attorney and say if she gets in my way, I'm going to book her for interfering in the criminal investigation."

Allen's son-in-law, Timothy Hunt, was working as a detention officer in Navajo County jail in April 2014, when a former inmate alerted authorities to possible questionable conduct with female inmates while working nights, according to county records.

Hunt was reassigned to a desk job while an investigation was launched – a point that didn't please Supervisor Allen, who immediately texted Sheriff Clark.

"I need to talk to you about what is going on in the jail," she texted on April 29. "The commander put up a note in the control room telling EVERYONE that Tim Hunt was not allowed into the jail this was before he got to work then they made him sit out front all day not telling him why he was being investigated. He was humiliated and no one said WHY."

Hunt would soon find out why, if he didn't already know.

As part of an independent investigation into his activities, six women claimed that he made sexually suggestive remarks and gestures to female inmates and passed along cigarettes and matches to one female inmate in exchange for oral sex.

Hunt denied it, contending that his command staff was framing him and that other detention officers and inmates were lying.

Allen texted Clark again in May, telling him to "see me". Clarks says she wanted to discuss the case but he refused, telling her that he would await the results of the investigation.

A few weeks later, Allen got further involved.

"I have been doing some research on my responsibilities as a Supervisor one important oversight is protecting county liability," she wrote, in a June 3 e-mail to Navajo County Manager James Jayne and Sheriff Clark. "This recent administrative investigation of my son-in-law has brought some problems to light that directly affect county liability."

Allen claimed that there were documents missing from the sheriff's computer system and attached several pages from the investigation into her son-in-law, with comments hand-written in the margins, suggesting that missing documents would shed light on Hunt's accusers.

In a subsequent email, Allen acknowledged that she asked the county's deputy director of Information Technology to recover those missing documents.

In a June 4 e-mail to Navajo County Attorney Brad Carlyon, she wrote, "I am making an official Public Records Request for IT to go into the (database) to see if there is a record of deleted or changed documents from October 2013 to May 30th of 2014. Depending on what is found by IT I will be requesting that they try to recover some of those documents in the backup system. Thank you. Supervisor Sylvia Allen."

It's unclear whether a search was made for Allen's missing documents. Clark, in an email, responded that the sheriff's office has used the computer system since 1998 and never had a problem.

"Never once had a missing report except for Tim Hunts, odd to say the least and hard to believe," he wrote.

Several weeks later, the independent investigator sustained four of the five allegations against Hunt, finding that "the preponderance of evidence" suggests among other things that he provided cigarettes to an inmate after she performed a sex act on him in a shower.

"Despite Hunt's denial of wrongdoing, there was significant consistency between the accounts of the witness female inmates, and there is no credible evidence of any conspiracy," the investigator wrote, in a June 25, 2014, report to the Navajo County Sheriff's Office.

In July, Hunt took a polygraph test and was deemed "not truthful" when he denied engaging in oral sex with a female inmate, according to the polygraph report.

He later resigned and the file was sent to the Yavapai County Attorney's Office, to determine whether criminal charges are warranted.

Allen, meanwhile, ran for the state Senate, to replace the late Sen. Chester Crandell, and in January became a member of the Arizona Legislature and the Senate pro tempore no less.

Enter Senate Bill 1467. Allen's bill would strengthen the rights of law enforcement officials who face disciplinary proceedings. It was a surprise to many in the law enforcement community, given that the Peace Officers Bill of Rights was just passed last year and didn't take effect until Jan. 1.

Among Allen's proposals: to allow full-blown appeals trials rather than summary reviews if an officer is disciplined and to get rid of polygraph examinations.

Like the one her son-in-law failed.

The Arizona Police Association, which represents dozens of police unions across the state, supports Allen's bill while the Arizona Association of Police Chiefs, the Arizona Sheriffs Association and the Arizona Association of Counties oppose it.

SB 1467 has been amended and the no-polygraph provision removed, but there are still things in there that give police officials heartburn. The bill flew through the Senate and is awaiting a final vote on the House floor.

I tried to reach Allen to talk to her both about her bill and her son-in-law. She didn't return my call.

If Allen had called, I would have asked the Snowflake Republican – one of the most conservative members of the Legislature -- when she became such a big fan of union bills.

If Allen had called, I would have asked her if her son-in-law's experience is why she's urging former Graham County Sheriff Richard Mack to move to Navajo County and run for sheriff. Mack's a regular on the state sovereignty, pro-militia, anti-government circuit. In December, he announced he was running as part a movement by "constitutional conservatives" to take over the county and "reassert the United States Constitution as the supreme law of the land." Allen is among those who has endorsed Mack's move as part of the Constitutional County Project.

Finally, if she'd called, I would have asked Allen whether it's appropriate for an elected official to throw her weight around for her relatives and to write new laws as a result of what happens to them.

Alas, she didn't call.

I can't imagine why.