State Senator Justine Wadsack (R-Tucson) is suing the City of Tucson for charging her with criminal speeding months after she was pulled over by a police officer and not given a ticket. Wadsack and her attorney Brad Miller, who is the incoming Pinal County Attorney, spoke to radio host Garrett Lewis last week during an interview about some new developments in the situation. Lewis asked Miller and Wadsack a series of questions about the “mythical speeding ticket that never existed.”
The City of Tucson has been unable to provide any proof that Wadsack was speeding, neither from a radar gun nor the officer’s pacing, Miller said. A city attorney admitted they had no evidence. Miller conducted an interview with the Tucson Police officer who pulled Wadsack over and discovered that the officers “don’t provide any type of printout or scientific way to show that the radar guns are, first of all, working, and second, they cannot provide those to any alleged defendants at all.” Additionally, officers do not include everything they do in their reports, “so he purposely kept out pieces of information.”
“What they’re trying to do is just to pit the officer’s word against yours,” Miller said. “And what they’re really trying to do is to say that most people are not going to call their bluff. And so that’s what Tucson Police Department has been doing. It appears they’ve been doing that for years, and they haven’t told anybody, because I don’t believe anybody’s ever challenged them on this that they cannot provide that analysis … any scientific basis on radar guns even working.”
He went on, “They use, in my beliefs, a deceptive tactic to get people to admit guilt when they’re in fact not guilty, because they know that these radars get calibrated one single time when they’re installed on the vehicle. That means it could be five years. They’re never calibrated again. And second of all, they can provide no analytical or scientific evidence of these things or in fact functioning properly.”
Miller explained how if it had been a civil speeding ticket, not criminal, Wadsack would have not been able to fight back at this level. “The burden is less, you don’t have a Sixth Amendment right of confrontation.”
Miller said the officer admitted to him that he deliberately leaves items out of his police reports. “He leaves out other things that he says are not important to him, because according to him, the report is for him and his memory and not for purposes of showing evidence from the government. … I guarantee, they do not teach that in the police academy. So he is not following standard property procedure, he is not doing his job. I don’t believe that he is acting as a good officer, and an honest officer in this particular case.”
Next, Miller discussed how the City of Tucson changed its position on Wadsack’s legislative immunity. He said at first the Tucson police chief said she had immunity, but six months later the Tucson City Attorney’s Office said she didn’t.
The police chief, assistant police chief, and Lieutenant Lauren Pettey, who has since been promoted to captain and who “drove the narrative in this case to go after Senator Wadsack … acted outside the chain of command, and this is something that is unprecedented,” Miller said. “Not only have they not cited the legislators for these types of speeding tickets, but they certainly have never gone around the chain of command and had a lieutenant direct an on-the-street officer to issue a criminal citation for a state senator.”
Wadsack told Lewis that lies were told about her. “They all took off with this information, saying that I talked my way out of a ticket that night, and that is an absolute lie. There was no discussion of a ticket … no discussion that we could be getting one that night or in the future. When they told me I was free to go, that meant I was free to go. So you know, this whole business of nuance that ‘used her privilege to get out of a speeding ticket’ is a lie.”
In response to what happened to Wadsack, Miller said he set up NoRadarNoTicket.com to inform others who have received speeding tickets from Tucson Police that radar evidence is not retained, so judges handling any challenges to the tickets would be relying on hearsay from the officers in order to find them guilty.
Wadsack said due to looking into this, she believes there is a high probability that tens of thousands, or even a hundred thousand people have “been pulled over by TPD and their constitutional rights have been infringed upon. And we need to get everybody to sign up so that we can make sure that we, you know, get through this and try to make a difference for others, not just for me.”
It was “absolutely strange” that the police chief would not agree to be deposed, Miller said. He will be filing a motion to compel his testimony. Miller said he believed it was due to their case against Wadsack falling apart. “I think they have so much egg on their face for doubling down, which is why the police chief won’t talk to me.”
Miller said the City of Tucson is wrong about Wadsack lacking legislative immunity. “They’re essentially saying that the Arizona Constitution does not provide privilege to any legislator … which is shocking because it’s literally Arizona Constitution that all members have privilege. And so they’re not only going after Senator Wadsack, every state legislator in Arizona.”
Wadsack said it was “lawfare” that her opponents heard about the criminal summons and ticket before she did. “I didn’t even know about the summons coming to me until the 19th, but for some reason, somehow this body cam footage was leaked by TPD to the Tucson Sentinel and to my opponent and his campaign consultant … and it’s already on TV before I even know that I’m … going to be summoned for something about four months earlier.”
Miller concluded, “You better believe when I take over here in about a month, Pinal County, we’re going to look at every single police department for calling people’s constitutional rights, because to me, the job of doing justice is to protect the people from the government, not the government from the people.”
Wadsack believes she was defeated for reelection in the primary by her more moderate opponent due to the negative publicity. There is a hearing scheduled within a couple of weeks on Wadsack’s motion for dismissal.
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Rachel Alexander is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Rachel on Twitter / X. Email tips to [email protected].
Image “State Sen. Justine Wadsack” by State Sen. Justine Wadsack.
