On Saturday, August 31, 2019, authorities were dispatched to a residence in Thatcher regarding a report of a man in a red Camaro making threats to a teenager. The reporting party said that her 16-year-old son was driving south on 20th Avenue and made a turn onto Golf Course Road. He was apparently followed and tailgated by a man driving a camaro all the way to his residence. The man in the Camaro reportedly pulled into the driveway of the teen’s residence next to him and started yelling threats of physical violence.
The teen’s mother recorded the incident on her cell phone. In the video the boy can be heard asking, “what did I do?” several times. The man in the Camaro then got out of his car and stood by it as he continued to taunt and verbally abuse the younger man. The man then got back in his car and drove away.
Several days later the teenager’s mother called authorities and identified the man who accosted her son. The deputy asked if she and her son were willing to press charges in the matter and she said that they were. The deputy met with the young man to get his side of the story. He identified the car chasing him as a red Challenger and said that the driver sped up to him right after he made the turn onto Golf Course Road and started yelling at him. He recounted how the driver of the Challenger followed him all the way home and pulled into the driveway. The young man stayed in his vehicle and tried to ask what he had done wrong, but the driver assailing him only said that he was going to beat him up and made other derogatory statements .
The deputy drove to the suspect’s home and asked about the incident. The man didn’t have a coherent explanation of the events. The deputy noted that the man was extremely intoxicated. His eyes were red and blood shot, his speech was slurred, there was a strong odor of alcohol emanating from him and he had rapid mood swings. He told the deputy that he had already talked to the boy’s father, then said, “if he would have just shut his mouth.” The deputy asked for details of exactly what happened but the man stated that he didn’t know what happened.
The deputy read the man his rights and the man responded that he had an attorney, “if we want to go down that road.”
The deputy explained that he needed the man’s side of the story and the man began saying that the teenager was the one doing all the yelling at him. The man stated that he did get a little upset, but denied getting out of his car at the boy’s residence. At that point the man refused to say anything more without an attorney.
The deputy filled out a criminal citation for Threatening and Disorderly Conduct, which the man refused to sign. The deputy left the citation on the man’s red Challenger and left the residence.
As the deputy came to a stop sign in the residential area, he looked in his mirror and saw the red Challenger pulling up behind him. The deputy got out of his vehicle and walked up the Challenger, which was being driven by the intoxicated man the deputy had just been talking to. The deputy asked him to step out of his vehicle and asked how much he’d had to drink. The man said that he had just had two beers and was on his way to check his mail.
The officer told him he needed to do some field sobriety tests before he could let him drive. After failing the initial tests the man refused to do anymore. He was placed in handcuffs and taken to the Thatcher Police Department for a blood draw. Another deputy drove the man’s car back to his residence.
At the police station the man refused to consent to a blood draw so the deputy obtained a warrant. The man still tried to refuse the blood draw and insisted on calling his lawyer. The deputy allowed him to make the call but there was no answer. The deputy told him that he would not ask any more questions about the case but said that the man had to submit to the blood draw because a judge had signed the warrant. The blood sample was taken and the deputy told the man that his license would be suspended for 12 months for refusing to consent to the blood draw.
The deputy then transported the man back to his residence and released him.
