Phoenix (AZ Family) — Maricopa County Officer Rustin Pierce recently appeared at a Senate hearing at the Arizona State Capitol to voice support for a bill that would eliminate background checks and drug testing for elected officials.

The testimony comes amid the possibility that Mr. Pearce may face criminal charges for questionable conduct on the job.

An Arizona family says Officer Pierce, who represents East Mesa, is accused of evicting someone from a Mesa apartment complex last year, then returning two weeks later and attempting to take guns and ammunition from the vacant apartment. I knew there was one.

According to an investigative report by the Arizona Constable Ethics, Standards, and Training Commission, “Officer Pierce entered an apartment complex not to enforce a court order, but to remove property left behind by an evicted tenant.” It’s not like I’m back.”

Ron Myers, a Maricopa County constable for 16 years, said these types of allegations send a bad message to the public.

“Being an elected official means you’ve been elected to be a peace officer, a constable who serves the public,” Myers said. “You have to follow the law, you have to abide by the law and you can’t even look like fraud. There’s certainly that in this.”

Another officer interviewed during the investigation said, “Pierce said he had some nice guns in his apartment and wanted to take them home.”

However, Pierce was never allowed to return to the apartment.

When Pierce returned to the apartment complex in uniform several weeks after the eviction, the property manager told him he was not authorized to return, the report said.

When asked about returning to the apartment, Pierce told investigators, “If I was going to trash the apartment, I didn’t want to throw everything away because I had some good stuff.”

Scott Blake is the president of the Arizona Police Officers Association.

He said there are strict laws and guidelines that constables must follow during evictions.

“Once the eviction is complete, the locks are changed, the windows are secured, the garage door is secured, our job is done,” Blake said. “At that point, the house becomes a warehouse. Officers are never allowed to go back there to remove anything.”

Arizona’s family contacted Officer Pierce to get his side of the story and ask about the charges against him.

“I don’t have access to the apartment, so it’s all speculation,” he said by phone. “I just heard about it. I was trying to be helpful.”

Under Arizona law, public officials cannot use their office to accept anything of value, and it is a class 6 felony for anyone to ask for or receive anything they are not authorized to ask for.

The Officer Ethics Commission will refer Pierce’s case to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, which will decide whether to file criminal charges.

“The people elected you to serve as a constable and have confidence in you,” Blake said. “We must protect the public’s trust.”

According to state law, landlords must hold onto an evicted tenant’s property for 14 days to give them a chance to recover. The landlord can then keep or sell the items left behind, but will not provide the proceeds (minus expenses) to the tenant if the tenant returns to claim it within 12 months. Must be.

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