Two former Southern Arizona law enforcement officers are facing the loss of their state certifications, which would bar them from working as certified officers in Arizona.
In a Wednesday meeting of the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board, members voted to start proceedings against Charles Austin, formerly of the Bisbee Police Department, and Israel Burkholder, a former Cochise County deputy, said spokeswoman Sandy Sierra.
The board also reviewed the case of former Tucson police Officer Zachary Bohmer, who was fired after being accused of sexual assault, according to AZPOST documents.
However, the board opted not to initiate proceedings, saying the investigation didn’t provide enough information, Sierra said.
“The board felt the evidence was incomplete and additional information was necessary, but that information wasn’t available now,” she said. “AZPOST compliance specialists are on alert and should he apply with another agency, it gives them the opportunity to gather this information through a polygraph examination by the potential hiring agency.”
Bohmer, 25, was officially fired by Tucson police July 6 for violating several department policies while he was a probationary employee. Hired in September 2015, Bohmer was already under investigation for his use of social media and photos he posted on the internet, when the department was notified of the sexual assault allegations, according to AZPOST documents.
In April, a woman told TPD detectives she’d been sexually assaulted by a man who said he was a police officer, the documents show.
The woman said that the one time she met up with Bohmer, she found herself “afraid to resist or turn him down” when the encounter turned sexual, and that he forced her to perform oral sex on him, according to the documents.
When detectives interviewed Bohmer, he said everything was consensual and the woman had sent him a text message the next day. In a follow-up interview with internal affairs, Bohmer changed his story and admitted that he texted the woman.
The criminal case was sent to the Pima County Attorney’s Office, which declined to prosecute because of insufficient evidence and the unlikelihood of getting a conviction.
“When he was asked about it, he wasn’t sure which girl they were talking about since he is on Tinder (an online dating app) and has had multiple dates with different girls,” the county attorney wrote in the declination letter, adding that it was unlikely the case would make it through a grand jury.
Bohmer was terminated after the first investigation. He will receive a letter alerting him to the board’s decision.
Drug use at issue
On Nov. 10, the Star reported that Burkholder, 43, who had recently been arrested in a murder-for-hire plot, resigned from the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office nearly two years ago after he admitted to using oxycodone and Vicodin while on duty for 1½ years, according to board documents.
The board’s decision Wednesday to initiate proceedings was based solely on the drug use. Burkholder, who worked at the department for more than a decade, appeared before a Cochise County judge Thursday, in a preliminary hearing for the murder-for-hire trial. He’s been charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, aggravated assault with serious injury and several drug charges, according to court documents.
Breath test
Former Bisbee police Officer Austin, 37, resigned in lieu of termination after he was discovered to have alcohol in his system while on-duty and wearing his uniform, according to board documents.
In October 2014, Austin called his supervisor while on duty and said that he wouldn’t be able to attend the staff briefing because of plumbing problems at his home. Because the department had received numerous reports in prior months that Austin had appeared in public “in various states of intoxication” and had shown up at the department off-duty and drunk, they decided to check on him to make sure he was fit for duty, the documents show.
When they arrived at his house, the supervisors found Austin in uniform and intoxicated, and learned that there was no plumbing issue. His breath test revealed a blood-alcohol level of 0.179, and he admitted to having a drinking problem and needing to go to rehab, according to the documents.
His second violation of department alcohol policies in three months, Austin was placed on leave but resigned the next day.
Formal complaints will be mailed to Austin and Burkholder, who have the opportunity for an AZPOST hearing with an administrative law judge, Sierra said.
