Fired Prison Officer Due In Court On Aggravated Assault Charge

Lt. Mark Hasz [Photo courtesy Arizona Department of Corrections]

One of two state prison employees fired earlier this month after excessive force was used against an inmate has been ordered to appear in court Monday for a status conference on a felony charge of aggravated assault.

Mark Hasz, 41, served until recently as a corrections lieutenant at the Arizona State Prison Complex – Lewis in Buckeye. He was charged in September after security video showed him on July 21 removing an inmate from a locked cell, then restraining the inmate against a wall before throwing the inmate face first to the concrete floor.

The inmate appears to make no move which would suggest provocation and there “was no justified reason under our use of force policy that compelled the supervisor and the corrections administrator to remove the inmate from his cell and restrain him,” according to ADC Director David Shinn.

That administrator was Shaun Holland, a deputy warden at ASPC-Lewis, who went to the inmate’s cell with Hasz and was standing a few feet away when the assault occurred. Holland wrote a report at the time justifying Hasz’s actions.

The firing of the two men was announced by ADC on Nov. 20 after both employees exhausted their appeal options. By then, Hasz had already entered a not guilty plea at his first court appearance on Oct. 26. He was released on his own recognizance pending trial after the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office did not argue for bail.

No trial date has been set in the Hasz case.

Holland was identified last year as the whistleblower who accused top prison officials of ignoring safety issues at ASPC-Lewis, including broken cell locks. Then in March, Hasz brought forth concerns that Shinn and other prison officials were not doing enough to protect staff from COVID-19.

Shortly after the July 21 use of force incident, Holland was placed on administrative leave. Some media reports at the time linked the action to his ongoing whistleblower activities, but prison officials informed Holland it was due to the July incident.

That is disputed in a lawsuit Holland has filed against prison officials.

“Prison administration seized upon this incident to open yet another retaliatory investigation of (Holland) and Lt. Hasz,” the lawsuit states.

On Nov. 19, a Maricopa County judge denied a motion filed on behalf of state prison officials to dismiss Holland’s lawsuit. The judge noted she wanted to await a decision by the Arizona Personnel Board which is also reviewing Holland’s termination.