Ed board president won't face assault charges

The president of the state Board of Education won’t face assault charges after claims by state schools chief Diane Douglas that he had assaulted her.

Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery reviewed the reports by the Department of Public Safety about what happened at the Aug. 24 meeting of the state Board of Education. Douglas claimed he grabbed her; Greg Miller said he did not but acknowledged there may have been “incidental” contact with her while he was trying to get her to stop speaking.

In a prepared statement, Montgomery said the only way to sustain a claim of assault is to “prove the intent to insult, injure or provoke.” He said that evidence does not exist here.

“We have determined there is no reasonable likelihood of proving the required elements of an assault offense beyond a reasonable doubt,” Montgomery said.

Douglas was not immediately available for comment. And Miller said he’s not going to pursue any claim against her of filing a false report.

“It just needs to go away,” he said.

“There are too many other things that really need to get done that have a whole lot more importance and priority,” Miller said. “And the kids in the state deserve us getting to them rather than having this petty little crap going on by her.”

The incident occurred when Douglas, who is a member of the board, was attempting to speak during a board meeting. Miller repeatedly told her she was out of order and said he was attempting to move the microphone from in front of her face.

Douglas, however, said Miller, sitting to her left, grabbed her arm and demanded that he release her.

Several board members who were interviewed said they did not see Miller touch Douglas. But Charles Schmidt, who sat three chairs to the right of Douglas, said he did.

According to Detective John Begley, Schmidt said that when Douglas began to speak “he observed Miller reach over with his right hand and grab her left arm as he told Douglas to stop speaking, as she did not have the floor.”

Begley aid Schmidt described the grab as “closing his right hand around Douglas’ left forearm.” Schmidt said Miller “appeared to be angry during the incident” and that Douglas “told Miller to get his hands off her.”

The report makes mention of a similar incident two months earlier that was never reported to police.

Miller, in discussing the Aug. 24 incident at the time, said what he did was justified.

“She was out of order again and, similar to the last time,” he said.

“I took her microphone away and pushed it up,” he said. “Obviously, I must have bumped her arm or something when I did that.”