A trooper with the Arizona Department of Public Safety remains at home recovering from injuries sustained last month in which he was dragged several hundred feet when a driver took off during a traffic stop in Cochise County near the U.S. / Mexico border.
Trooper Kyle Mahoney’s injuries were not life threatening but he remains off work at this time, DPS spokesman Raul Garcia told Arizona Daily Independent. Meanwhile, Marcus Anthony Calderon of Tucson will be back in court Oct. 7 for a pretrial conference on 10 felonies in connection with the incident.
Calderon, 37, remains in the Cochise County jail in lieu of a $100,000 bond to secure his pretrial release. His speedy trial deadline is Jan. 23, 2023, according to court records.
The case against Calderon began around 4:40 p.m. on Aug. 11 when DPS troopers initiated a traffic stop of a white Acura sedan south of Sierra Vista on State Route 92. The driver -later identified as Calderon- was suspected of involvement in human smuggling.
A DPS press release at the time described the incident as happening after Mahoney reached into the opened driver’s door to detain the driver, who instead fled, “dragging the trooper for several hundred feet before he was able to jump away from the vehicle.”
However, court documents obtained by Arizona Daily Independent provide more details into the frighteningly ordeal which started when DPS Trooper Jeff Richardson instructed the driver to turn off the vehicle and take the keys out of the ignition.
DPS Det. Delvern Merrill wrote in a probable cause statement supporting Calderon’s arrest that Calderon told Richardson the keys would not come out of the ignition. When the troopers confirmed the situation involved a likely human
smuggling offense, Mahoney opened the driver’s door and asked Calderon to step out of the vehicle.
“Trooper Mahoney stated Calderon started the vehicle, put it into gear and took off,” wrote Merrill, the lead investigator. “Trooper Mahoney’s legs were both inside Calderon’s vehicle as (Calderon) took off accelerating at a high rate of speed. Trooper Mahoney told me he had one hand on the steering wheel and one on the driver side door bracing himself trying to not fall out. Trooper Mahoney stated he did not want to jump out because he was in fear of getting run over.”
Richardson watched as the Acura drove across both lanes of traffic and went off the side of the roadway about 150 years away with Mahoney hanging out of the vehicle. Although Richardson could no longer see the vehicle, Mahoney had a close up view of a tree in the path of the Acura.
Mahoney told Merrill he “let go, fell out of the vehicle and tumbled a few times head over heels.” Meanwhile, Richardson saw the Acura come back onto the roadway so he returned to his patrol vehicle which is equipped with a front bumper grappling device to use during pursuits.
The device was deployed, after which “Calderon’s vehicle spun out of control and came to rest,” Merrill wrote. “Trooper Richardson stated Cochise County Sheriff’s office deputies and Sierra Vista PD officers arrived to assist with a high risk stop and they took Calderon into custody.”
In a post-Miranda interview, Calderon told Merrill he came from Tucson to Sierra Vista and picked up undocumented immigrants at the Coronado National Monument. One of the troopers told Calderon during the traffic stop he was going to jail.
“Calderon stated he did not want to go to jail and just wanted to get away from the situation, so he put his car in gear and took off,” Merrill wrote. “Calderon stated his foot was kind of stuck on the accelerator and he went off the roadway crashing through brush and ditches.”
Merrill also wrote that Calderon stated he drove off without realizing where Mahoney was as Calderon was “just focusing on getting away.”
During the interview, Calderon acknowledged his action could have resulted in severe injury or even death to the trooper.
Calderon was indicted by a Cochise County grand jury a week after the incident. He is charged with three counts of aggravated assault, five counts of endangerment, and one count each of criminal damage and unlawful flight from a law enforcement vehicle.
Rachel Raynes of the Cochise County Attorney’s Office is prosecuting the case while Deputy Legal Advocate Ashlea Allred has been appointed to represent Calderon.
Four adult female passengers in the Acura at the time of the incident were taken into custody by U.S. Border Patrol. Merrill’s report makes no mention of whether any of the passengers were injured.
