Two former Tucson police officers and an ex-Pima County sheriff’s deputy are facing the loss of their peace officer certifications, officials say.
During a Wednesday meeting, the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board voted to initiate proceedings against Randy W. Quinn, Steven S. Pupkoff and Michael A. Villarreal, said board spokeswoman Sandy Sierra.
The board will forward formal complaints to all three men, who will have an opportunity for an AZPOST hearing in front of an administrative law judge, Sierra said.
Randy W. Quinn
Quinn, 32, was fired by the Tucson Police Department in December after a months-long internal investigation revealed he ran illegal records checks using the law enforcement computer database, according to department and AZPOST records.
A woman complained to the department that Quinn was running license-plate checks on cars that visited her home, at the request of her ex-husband, who was friends with Quinn. When confronted by investigators, Quinn said he didn’t remember doing that, but admitted to writing down license plate numbers of cars he saw violating traffic laws when he was off-duty in order to identify the car and catch the driver committing a traffic violation when he was on-duty, in order to meet his ticket quota.
Investigators said these “curiosity checks” were felonies and referred the case to the Pima County Attorney’s Office for prosecution.
Because statements made during internal police investigations can’t be used as evidence for criminal proceedings, the Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute.
Quinn, who was hired by TPD in 2007, appealed his firing with the city’s Civil Service Commission in March, but it ruled in favor of the department.
Steven S. Pupkoff
Pupkoff, 45, was arrested last June for an off-duty DUI, after he crashed into a parked car, according to AZPOST records.
A citizen who approached the car after the crash found Pupkoff “slumped over the driver side vehicle with the motor still running and in drive,” the records show.
The citizen notified the owner of the parked car about the crash, who in turn called 911 to report the crash. Officers who responded to the scene noted that Pupkoff was initially unresponsive, but eventually woke up and rolled down the window.
Officers “immediately noticed signs and symptoms of impairment” and he refused to perform field-sobriety and breathalyzer tests. He was taken to a hospital and arrested for a DUI, but still refused to submit to a blood test. After officers obtained a telephonic search warrant, the blood draw was completed, and results showed that Pupkoff’s blood alcohol level was 0.20, more than twice the legal limit, according to AZPOST records.
Pupkoff, who was hired by TPD in 1992, pleaded guilty in March to extreme DUI and was ordered to pay $3,840, spend 10 days in jail and 11 months on unsupervised probation.
Michael A. Villarreal
Former sheriff’s deputy Michael A. Villarreal was fired in November after telling a coworker that deputies had been dispatched to her home for reports of underage drinking, according an AZPOST case overview.
On Oct. 30, Villarreal was dispatched to a home for a house party with underage drinking, which he knew to be the home of a Sheriff’s Department employee.
Before starting his shift, Villarreal, 29, knew that his coworker was going to be throwing a party and agreed to give her a “heads up” if any 911 calls came in regarding the party.
After he heard the 911 call, Villarreal called the woman on her cellphone and told her to get the party under control, before meeting with a supervisor and other deputies for a briefing on how to respond to the party.
Villarreal, who graduated from the law enforcement training academy last February, told investigators that before he heard the 911 call, he had no knowledge of any underage drinking at the party.
The woman, who works for the Sheriff’s Department as a corrections officer, was cited for contributing to the delinquency of minors by knowingly providing them with alcohol.
The case was not referred for prosecution, but Pima County Consolidated Justice Court records indicate that she completed an adult diversion class in connection with the misdemeanor citation.
Villarreal was “completely forthright with investigators” and said he told his coworker about the 911 call because they previously worked as corrections officers together.
Despite the fact that “Villarreal agreed it was a conflict of interest, a lapse in judgment and something he would never do again,” he was terminated from the department on Nov. 18.
