11th-hour email paves way for MPD to appear on TV

After months of planning, a major TV network was in Maricopa Wednesday afternoon filming with the Maricopa Police Department at the new Donald N. Pearce Fire Station No. 575.

The Discovery Channel was on hand to film an episode of its show, “Frenemies,” which airs on its channel Investigation Discovery. The series is focusing on the infamous 2011 Kassandra Toruga case in which Toruga attempted to kill her pregnant friend and cut the baby out of her stomach.

“Frenemies,” a mixture of the words friend and enemy, is a show about friends who turn on each other – often with violent consequences.

“When I first heard about it I knew right away this was great for the department,” said MPD spokesman Ricardo Alvarado. “It’s great that we can get the officers involved out there and they can get recognition for the good work they did.”

Due to legal hang-ups, the filming almost didn’t happen.

Atlas Media Corp, a production company Discovery uses, asked for a release of location from the city to allow filming on city property. In the request, Atlas said it would not be responsible for any property damage incurred during the shoot.

Fitzgibbons Law Offices, which represents the city of Maricopa, wouldn’t allow the deal to go through without changing that clause because the fire station is public property and taxpayer money would have to be used to fix any damage.

Emails between legal teams and MPD went back-and-forth for two months and finally resulted in approval of changing the release to hold Atlas responsible for damages at 2:46 a.m. Wednesday before filming the arresting officers in the case too place.

“We’ve been filming for two days,” said freelance director of photography Jim Scott. The Tucson native was contacted by Atlas to be a part of the shoot. “We’re filming the officers and the couple who (Toruga) tried to kill and a few other people involved.”

“It’s been hectic and I’ve been working a lot but we got it together at almost the last minute,” Alvarado said.