Hearing to appeal termination of Maricopa police officer begins

A hearing to appeal the termination of Maricopa Police Officer Craig Curry began Monday at Maricopa City Hall, with witnesses recounting a litany of allegations against the 14-year officer.

Curry was terminated earlier this year. Monday’s hearing is part of the appeal process. A final decision wasn’t reached and the hearing is expected to continue July 25.

Curry was involved in a high-profile incident on June 26, 2020, when Ike, Curry’s K-9 partner, died after Curry left the 9-year-old Dutch Shepherd in a patrol car for 103 minutes. An MPD internal investigation found Curry violated three code of conduct policies:

• Failure to exercise care or control in the use of MPD equipment, property, materials, forms and facilities;
• Operating an MPD vehicle in an unsafe manner when such carelessness causes damage to city property, or brings negative attention to MPD;
• Unsatisfactory performance.

Curry was suspended 20 hours without pay.

The incident was investigated by the Arizona Department of Public Safety and reviewed by the Pinal County Attorney’s Office, which declined criminal prosecution of Curry.

In addition to the K-9 death, there were a total of 19 citizen complaints or internal investigations launched against Curry for incidents occurring between Sept. 28, 2013, and Nov. 7, 2021. Those incidents included:

• 10 use-of-force complaints, including three in just over two months from March to May of 2018;
• Two vehicle collisions, including a disciplinary action for backing his patrol vehicle into a parked Maricopa Fire & Medical Department truck while setting up for a community event at the Rancho El Dorado clubhouse;
• Three internal investigations;
• An investigation into a vehicle pursuit.

During Monday’s hearing, MPD Lieutenant Kathleen Elliot was asked as a witness by city attorney Denis Fitzgibbons why she thought Curry’s termination was warranted.

“Because of the nature of the complaints, there were several allegations that were sustained for untruthfulness that closely speaks to our integrity in this profession,” Elliot said. “The not wearing the body-worn camera and violating the direct orders … it’s all about the integrity of the employee and we’re educated on that from day one in the academy, that our integrity is all that we have. Those violations are serious.”

Commander Michael Campbell also felt the termination was justified.

“Throughout my career we have been taught that our integrity, our character and our reliability to testify is extremely important, that’s the number one thing,” Campbell said.
“When you work at the academy or you go to the academy, they talk to you about, ‘if you lie you die.’ Supervisors throughout my career have said when people were questioning things I do, never lie, because I can’t help if I lie. So, I think based on that, and the fact that throughout our Code of Ethics and city policies to the admonishment that tells you not to lie when you become subject to (investigation).”