When Cochise County Attorney Brian McIntyre announced earlier this week he will not resign following his recent arrest for Super Extreme DUI, he referred to concerns that the county’s Board of Supervisors has exclusive authority to fill any vacancy due to a resignation.
McIntyre, 50, was charged Jan. 28 with a Class 1 misdemeanor after he was tested at a .21 BAC following a traffic stop by a Sierra Vista police officer. He issued a statement Feb. 6 announcing he will not resign, pointing to the possible negative effects that could be suffered from “complete uncertainty as to the future policies, goals, and objectives of this office.”
But McIntyre’s veiled criticism of how the board of supervisors could cause chaos within the office that prosecutes thousands of criminal cases and defends Cochise County against lawsuits is seen by some county staffers and officials as a disturbing deflection from growing questions about McIntyre’s own management issues.
His recent arrest is just the latest difficulty for McIntyre inside county offices and out, according to several people with knowledge of the situation. On a personal level, McIntyre must find a way to balance his due process rights related to the DUI charge with his responsibility to instill respect for the local judicial system.
It also comes at a time when McIntyre was already being scrutinized for his longtime friendship with a businessman who is under investigation for an alleged sexual assault outside a Sierra Vista bar last year.
The official police report includes evidence that the suspect, who has not been charged, told at least two prospective witnesses of his close relationship with McIntyre in an apparent attempt to intimidate the witnesses or the young woman who filed the complaint.
McIntyre’s office was also under scrutiny for recent activities inside the courts, including a judge’s decision last month to sanction one of his staff attorneys for advising the County Treasurer to ignore a court ordered deadline for issuing a legal document.
The attorney’s actions cost McIntyre’s office, aka taxpayers, nearly $2,000 the judge ordered be paid to the person who did not get the document by the deadline.
LEARN MORE:
County Attorney Sanctioned By Judge For Advising Treasurer To Ignore Court Order
And on Dec. 9, McIntyre stood before another Cochise County judge to present a plea agreement he negotiated to resolve the prosecution of Justin Copeland, a former U.S. Army soldier who had been serving a 34-year prison sentence after being convicted by McIntyre’s office in 2019 of 50 counts of child molestation.
The Arizona Court of Appeals overturned Copeland’s convictions and sentence last year due to legal errors by the judge. The appellate ruling also mentioned concerns about the now-former prosecutor’s conduct during the trial.
McIntyre, who did not ask the Arizona Supreme Court to review the appellate court’s order for a new trial, then had to fend off an attempt by Copeland to have the entire case dismissed in light of a scathing report by one of the state’s top legal ethics experts about the now-former prosecutor’s conduct.
Instead of taking the case to trial again, McIntyre agreed to a plea deal involving only one count of attempted molestation which caps Copeland’s time in prison to just 5 years with full credit for the time he already served on the overturned sentence.
Prosecutor’s Conduct During Trial Could Lead To Dismissal Of Child Molestation Case
McIntyre is also the subject of a victim’s right complaint filed with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office. The complaint alleges McIntyre failed to ensure his office complied with Arizona’s Victims Bill of Rights during an investigation into whether two young children were molested.
Much of the scrutiny McIntyre is under, however, touches back to his personal conduct, which blew up from mere barfly gossip to local social media frenzy in 2021 when his then-wife publicly shared in great detail the end of the couple’s marriage.
The wife’s various comments prompted McIntyre to publicly address the matter on social media, admitting he simply left a note on the couple’s bed saying he was leaving her.
But it is the painful police bodycam video from Jan. 28 that likely provided most people in Cochise County and across the state their first view into McIntyre’s life.
Public records show McIntyre had left a Sierra Vista bar, reportedly to provide ride home to a woman, when a Sierra Vista officer saw the vehicle make several traffic violation.
It was no surprise to the officer who he would find at the wheel, due to McIntyre’s vanity license plate which reads “RACK IT” in a tip of the hat to McIntyre’s fondness for playing pool. In fact, the same officer ran a check on the license plate last spring, one of six times in 2022 that a license plate check was performed by a police department or the sheriff’s office in Cochise County.
Another of the six checks was performed by a Benson police officer last March when McIntyre’s vehicle was a victim of a multi-vehicle accident, according to Chief Greg Volker.
And a plate check in December resulted in a warning by a Cochise County sheriff’s deputy to McIntyre for excessive speed near the Southeast Arizona Law Enforcement Training Academy in Douglas where McIntyre occasionally teaches.
Requests are pending for similar data from DPS, Pima County Sheriff’s, and Tucson PD.
It has been suggested that McIntyre’s plate was run so often last year due to curiosity with its uniqueness. However, Arizona law makes it a Class 6 felony for a peace officer to access confidential law enforcement databases without a legitimate purpose.
“There is no way any cop looked up that license plate without having a legitimate reason to do so, such as preparation for a traffic stop,” one veteran DPS trooper told Arizona Daily Independent. “Honestly we have enough serious work to do on each shift and any curiosity with a specialized plate is not worth the risk of losing our job.”