Phoenix officer charged with misconduct after woman says she was injured during traffic stop


An Arizona woman is accusing a police officer of misconduct after he allegedly threw her to the ground and pushed her into a car during an arrest in January, leaving her with injuries.

Mariah Valenzuela, 23, was detained by Phoenix Police officer Michael McGillis just before midnight on the January 16 for allegedly driving on the wrong side of a city street, according to a police report.

Police body camera video obtained by NBC News shows her stopping in a parking lot and getting out of her car when McGillis approaches. The video was also obtained by NBC affiliate KPNX in Phoenix.

The videos obtained by NBC News, which have not been publicly released by the police, appear to be the full footage of the arrest.

The officer asks for Valenzuela’s license, and she says she doesn’t have it, the body camera video shows.

“Do you have any identification?” asks the officer, one of his repeated requests for his ID.

Valenzuela turns to her car, then asks McGillis why they stopped her, the video shows. McGillis doesn’t seem to respond.

Then the officer tries to arrest Valenzuela and yells at him to put his hands behind his back.

Valenzuela starts screaming and repeatedly asks why she is arrested when the officer brings her to the ground, according to the video.

Mariah Valenzuela indicates where she sustained an injury in images recorded by a body camera used by police in Phoenix on January 17, 2020.Courtesy of James Palestini.

“What did I do? … What approached me? You approached me for no reason,” she says.

McGillis lifts Valenzuela off the ground and then appears to push her against her car. “Why don’t you act like a lady?” he says.

Valenzuela accuses the officer of mistreating her. “You act like I’m a damn threat. Are you serious?” she says before the officer takes her to the back of a police vehicle.

The video showed that Valenzuela had a bruising on the top of her head that was bleeding, as well as injuries to her hand and face.

McGillis could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.

Valenzuela’s attorney, James Palestini, told NBC News in a telephone interview on Wednesday that when the officer decided to arrest Valenzuela, “he immediately grabs her and violently throws her to the ground, causing her some rather unpleasant injuries.”

He said his client “had several abrasions, cuts. There was also some bleeding and the vessels in his eye were damaged.”

He received medical treatment at the scene, Palestini said.

Ann Justus, a police spokeswoman, said in a statement that McGillis repeatedly asked Valenzuela for identification, but she declined.

“Because Valenzuela did not provide her identification as legally required, despite the three opportunities Officer McGillis offered her, the decision was made to arrest her for the misdemeanor offense,” the statement read.

“Officer McGillis asked Valenzuela to put his hands behind his back. Up to this point, despite the fact that she refused to provide her identification, Officer McGillis and Valenzuela had a cordial exchange, and he did not believe that she suddenly stop cooperating. Officer McGillis then tried to handcuff her, “the statement continued.

“Valenzuela immediately stopped cooperating and actively resisted legal arrest by walking away and refusing to place his hands behind his back,” the statement said, adding that McGillis brought Valenzuela to the ground “for the safety of both the Officer and Valenzuela. “

“Because Valenzuela actively resisted arrest, it took Officer McGillis one minute and twenty-seven seconds to place his hands in handcuffs,” the statement read. “When Officer McGillis thought she had calmed down enough to stand up, he helped her up and they started walking towards a vehicle when she started screaming again. Officer McGillis pushed her against her car to keep her from resisting again”.

Officers wrote in a police report that Valenzuela smelled of alcohol and marijuana. She admitted to drinking and smoking marijuana, according to the report. The police report also says that Valenzuela has a medical marijuana card.

Palestini said his client’s blood alcohol content returned to .043, which is below the state’s .08 legal limit.

Valenzuela was arrested and charged with several misdemeanors, including driving under the influence. She was also charged with a felony that resisted arrest.

His attorney said Wednesday that all charges were dismissed on Tuesday. The Maricopa County District Attorney’s Office confirmed that the resistant arrest charge was dismissed.

A phone call to the Phoenix City Attorney’s Office, which police say is handling DUI and misdemeanor charges, was not immediately answered Wednesday.

Valenzuela’s lawyer said: “I think what shocked her the most was seeing everything that is happening on television in the news. And now she says: ‘That is me, too, now.'”

He said Valenzuela plans to sue the police department for the misconduct charge.

Another body camera video of the scene, obtained by NBC News, and which is apparently after Valenzuela’s arrest, he shows a different officer calling a supervisor and saying that he is going to write a use of force report.

“She is super emotional, super Looney Tunes,” says the officer about Valenzuela.

The supervisor tells the officer “only for CYA ourselves”, an apparent acronym for “cover your a–“.

The police spokesman’s statement to NBC News acknowledged the supervisor’s comment and said he was “ordering officers to complete a Use of Force Report.”

Police said in a statement obtained by KPNX: “The Phoenix Police Department takes allegations of misconduct seriously and the complaints are thoroughly investigated. In these investigations, body camera images are reviewed and documented. The incident was reviewed by the Office of Professional Standards and no police violations were found. “

The statement to NBC News on Wednesday said Officer McGillis has had no other sustained allegations of misconduct in the past five years.

The Phoenix Police Department fired an officer last year after he pointed a gun at Dravon Ames, his fiancee, and their children while they were in his car.

The confrontation with the police began after the officer accused the couple’s daughter of taking a doll from a Family Dollar store.