It was a cool night just before 1 a.m. as Maricopa Police Lt. Willie Payne, then a Pinal County Sheriff’s Office deputy, patrolled Interstate 10 outside Toltec. “I pulled behind a mid-sized car, as I had countless times before, to assess the driver for possible signs of driving under the influence,” Payne said. After several moments of following the car, the unexpected happened. A tire on the vehicle Payne was following blew out, sending the car rolling off the highway. “I just counted the number of times the car flipped,” Payne said. “I thought I saw a body fly out on the third or fourth roll.” Once the car came to a stop, Payne rushed from his cruiser and looked into the wreckage of the vehicle, which was now lying on its roof. He saw no one inside. But then he heard a voice scream: “Help me, please don’t let me die. I have three …” and then the voice stopped. Acting on pure instinct and adrenaline, Payne grabbed the car and hoisted with all his might. He felt his heart thumping, to the point he felt it was going to burst from his chest. As the vehicle rested halfway on its side, Payne, his heart still racing, felt a hand grab his ankle. “It snapped me back into reality, and I realized what I was doing,” he said. Payne pushed the car over the rest of the way; however, as it flipped, his back gave out, and he collapsed on the ground beside the injured man. “I couldn’t move.” Luckily another car had stopped, and its driver witnessed the entire episode. The bystander rushed to the aid of the two injured men. Payne instructed him to get into the police cruiser and call for help on the radio. The man who had been trapped under the car survived and, years later, Payne still receives a card of gratitude from him each year. On a mission While the memory of saving a life is one that Payne holds close to his heart, it was a memory of tragedy that propelled him into the law enforcement field. In 1976 Payne had just gotten married and was planning to visit a close friend who recently had been injured. However, before he could fulfill his commitment, the man Payne describes as “like a brother” died in an auto accident caused by a drunk driver. “I vowed from that moment to become a police officer and wage a war on drunk drivers,” Payne said. The following year Payne joined the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office as a deputy, a position he would hold until he came to work for the Maricopa Police Department in 2007. To launch his war on drunk drivers and make roadways across the county safer, Payne embarked on an off-duty mission. He did his own research to gain a better understanding of alcohol impairment, utilizing an abandoned property. Payne and a friend would go to the property several times a week with Payne taking the wheel with booze in hand. “We would essentially monitor my blood alcohol content with a Breathalyzer and take notes on my driving behaviors as the amount I drank continued to increase,” Payne said. Armed with his research, Payne became one of the most prolific experts in the state on spotting alcohol-impaired drivers. His best year came in 1995 when he was named Deputy of the Year for issuing 142 DUI citations, 82 of them were aggravated (a more severe DUI charge that is a Class 4 felony). “Any officer can spot a drunk driver if they put their mind to it,” Payne said. While Payne had the knowledge to spot the drunken vehicle operators, he initially lacked the knowledge to make the charges stick. “I had my first DUI case thrown out because of a bad report,” he said. It would be the only one Payne lost. He dedicated himself to perfecting his reports, questioning prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges, all in an attempt to find what they look for in a DUI arrest report. “It got to the point those TV lawyers did not want to take on any of my cases,” Payne said. Report-writing perfection, teamed with his eye for drivers under the influence, has resulted in Payne removing more than 1,600 drunk drivers from the road. Now a lieutenant, Payne no longer sits behind the wheel of a patrol car, but that doesn’t mean the streets are any less safe. Payne regularly holds training seminars to teach other officers his methods and often plays a major role in the county’s inter-agency DUI task force. “I will keep on working for the department until I feel I have nothing to give back,” Payne said. “I don’t want to keep a job just to get a paycheck.” Music man Payne recalls being only 3 years old, living on a farm in Coolidge and watching the Ed Sullivan Show. He remembers being intrigued when a young black musician with dark sunglasses named Ray Charles took the stage to play piano and belt out a song. A young Payne asked his mother why the man was wearing sunglasses. She told him the singer was blind. “I didn’t even know what being blind meant back then, but I figured if he could play the piano, so could I,” Payne said. Payne immediately took up the keyboard, teaching himself to play by ear. His skills grew until he and a childhood friend, Rick English, formed a band, nearly 20 years ago, called the Rick and Willie Band. The group still plays select venues throughout the Valley and Casa Grande when Payne can make time in his tight schedule. “They say I have a range from Barry White to Michael Jackson,” the 300-pound-plus Payne said. While Payne’s band is an accomplishment he prizes, it isn’t the peak of his musical prowess. That came several years ago when the musician got to play with his childhood idol, Ray Charles, at the Celebrity Theater. “It is an experience I will never forget,” Payne said. Where the buffalo roam Growing up on a farm and participating in rodeos, Payne had many firsthand experiences with animals, but one variety struck a chord with him: the majestic buffalo. “I saw a few buffalo when I was a kid and thought to myself that I would one day own some of those creatures,” Payne said. Then in 2007 a Maricopa area farmer informed Payne he had a couple buffalo he was looking to unload because he planned on selling his property. “They were pretty skinny at the time, but I jumped at the opportunity,” Payne said. To get the buffalo to his three-acre property in Thunderbird Farms, Payne, with the help of several friends, worked day and night to build a pen for the animals. “It was a lot of work and at times I wasn’t getting to bed until after midnight,” he said. However, it was a sacrifice Payne said was worth it. “There is just something great about waking up and seeing buffalo in your backyard,” Payne said. According to Payne, the animals are similar to cattle; however, they are not nearly as friendly. Payne has yet to ride his male buffalo and predicts he never will. “I’m at the age right now, I’ll just look at the buffalo and say ‘you win.’ But if I was a little younger, it would be a different story.” Payne eventually would like to increase the size of his herd to 12 buffalo and raise the animals to be slaughtered for their meat. “There is no taste like buffalo meat; it is so lean and flavorful.”
In his spare time While law enforcement, music and raising buffalo consume a lot of Payne’s time, they are not the Pinal County native’s only interests. Payne is fascinated with all things Halloween and has decorated the entire interior of his home in Halloween décor, which includes a coffin, life-size mummy, a “creepy waiter,” and several other frighteningly fun figures. Payne added that he has several mechanical toys rigged throughout the house to jump out at the opportune time to spook people. “I don’t like the gory, scary stuff, but the old school, startle-you type of scary,” Payne said. “I just like to have fun with life. I am living my dream.” DID YOU KNOW? • Bison is actually the correct name for buffalo, but common usage has made the term “buffalo” an acceptable synonym for the American bison.
• A mature buffalo bull weighs approximately 2,000 pounds.
• The average life span of a buffalo is 20 to 25 years.
• There are approximately 500,000 head of buffalo in North America.
• Yellowstone National Park has the largest free roaming buffalo population in the world, with more than 3,500 head.
Source: American Bison Association (A version of this story appeared in the February issue of InMaricopa News.) Photo by Michael. K. Rich |