Phoenix cops resign after motorist says they made him swallow marijuana or go to jail

Three members of the Phoenix Police Department have resigned after being accused of telling a motorist to eat marijuana during a recent traffic stop, law enforcement said Thursday.

The officers were already under investigation over the alleged incident, but left the force before the department could take disciplinary action of its own, Police Chief Joe Yahner told reporters Thursday afternoon.

“These actions are appalling, unacceptable and they are no longer members of our organization,” he said.

The Phoenix Police Dept. said in a statement earlier in the day that a 19-year-old motorist claimed he was pulled over for a traffic violation on the morning of Sept. 13 and told he would be taken to jail unless swallowed about a gram of marijuana discovered during a subsequent search of his vehicle.

“The resident reported that he ate the marijuana, was issued traffic tickets and then released from the scene,” the statement read.

The unidentified local man reportedly became sick afterwards and filed an official complaint with the department accusing the officers in inappropriate conduct. That filing led officials to open both a criminal and internal investigation before the three officers allegedly involved tendered their resignation soon after the department divulged details of the allegations early Thursday.

“I was going to fire them. They chose to resign,” the police chief said during press conference that afternoon, and that their “termination was inevitable,” The Arizona Republic reported.

The three officers who resigned have been identified as Richard G. Pina, Jason E. McFadden and Michael J. Carnicle. They had each been with the department for less than a year and were still in their probationary period when the incident is said to have occurred. Mr. McFadden previously spent close to a decade with the Chicago Police Department and had worked on narcotics cases for several years, local media reported.

A fourth officer, Jeff Farrior, was demoted from lieutenant to sergeant because he was aware of the encounter and attempted to delay the investigation, the police chief said.

“As your police chief, I want you to know how appalled I was when I was informed about these allegations,” the police chief said in the initial press release. “The conduct alleged by our resident is contrary to everything we stand for as community servants.”

Marijuana is banned federally, but voters in Arizona approved a ballot measure in 2010 that allows residents to take part in a state-sanctioned medical marijuana program. Nearly 90,000 patients are currently registered through that program and are able to acquire weed from more than 90 dispensaries across the state, according to the Marijuana Policy Project, a D.C.-based organization that has led efforts to legalize the plant since its founding in 1995.

The Phoenix motorist claimed to have a medical marijuana card, but sources within the police department believe otherwise, the city’s local ABC affiliate reported Thursday.

On Nov. 8, voters in Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Maine and Nevada will consider legalizing marijuana for recreational use in their respective states. Twenty-five states and Washington, D.C., currently have medicinal marijuana programs in place, while recreational weed laws exist now in Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska and the nation’s capital.