An ongoing Mesa internal investigation found the information from a tipster used in a Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office affidavit to be “inaccurate” following the October raids of city buildings.
The affidavit — which was used by the sheriff’s office to get search warrants to raid City Hall, the downtown library and the municipal security building — references fired security systems technician Chuck Wilson’s statements to a sheriff’s detective that he was in charge of issuing badges for access to city buildings. It also mentioned that Mesa police Lt. Wade Pew had been made aware of the fact that forged documents were being used to get access badges to enter the buildings by employees of contractor Management Cleaning Controls.
The sheriff’s office had alleged that Mesa ignored information from Wilson and did not act on the tip.
Pew has denied that allegation and Mesa provided documents showing that it had internally followed up on the complaint from Wilson.
The city’s report, dated Monday, prepared by city attorney Catherine Bowman states the information contained in the search warrant affidavit “that is attributed to Chuck Wilson is inaccurate.”
The report states that unlike in the affidavit, Wilson was not involved in issuing city badges and was never “in charge” of issuing badges. It adds that two other employees, Charlene Gutierrez and Debi Maxwell, were responsible for providing access cards to Mesa employees and authorized contractors.
The affidavit was signed by sheriff’s Detective S. Monroe.
The city’s report was sent to the sheriff’s office on Monday, in addition to numerous other documents to fulfill a public records request by the sheriff’s office. These include any communication made or received by Pew, records regarding the investigations that led to the firing of Wilson in a sexual harassment case, and documents of Mesa’s internal investigation on the contractor’s alleged illegal workers.
Since the raids, Mesa police officials have also requested additional documents related to the case. The sheriff’s office has provided the search warrant affidavit and the search warrant. Nothing else on the case can be released because it could jeopardize the ongoing criminal investigation, sheriff’s office Deputy Chief Brian Sands said Tuesday.
Sands questioned Mesa making this report public at this time. Mesa police spokesman Ed Wessing had said earlier the information is pertinent to the case.
The report states that “Mesa does not have documents from (the sheriff’s office) that reflect what Wilson told Monroe, so Mesa does not know the source of the inaccuracies.”
Sands said Mesa’s report, which is yet to be reviewed by their office, is “an issue for the county attorney to respond to.”
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Tuesday he did not wish to comment on the report because he hadn’t read it yet. But he said that “the bottomline is we arrested 16 people for felonies.
“I don’t think it’s feasible to comment on the report anyway,” Arpaio said. “We still have a pending criminal investigation.”
Sixteen people were arrested in October’s raid, three at the city’s main library downtown and another 13 contract workers at their residences. Charges were filed against 11 workers in connection with fraud.
Sands said when the basic information from a source corroborates a crime, “it would be up to the county attorney to see what kind of witness Wilson would be.”
A spokeswoman at Maricopa County Superior Court said Judge Gary Donahoe, who issued the controversial late-night warrant, would not comment on the matter.
According to the report, the concerns Mesa had with the contractor included some of their employees bringing unauthorized people to work to help clean the buildings, of bringing their children to work, and the contractor’s employees going through trash or looking at documents in a secured building.
Mesa’s report further indicates that after concerns were raised last year about Management Cleaning Controls’ workers using false IDs to secure access into city buildings, the city combined the access badge with the identification card, to prevent misuse of city badges. All of the contractor’s workers had to collect their new badges in person and provide a government-issued identification and other verification documents.
“Mesa had concerns with MCC’s performance as a contractor on several levels. There were meetings, e-mails and cooperative efforts to resolve these concerns. There is no indication, however, that at any time prior to May 20, 2008, Mesa had information that an MCC employee used or attempted to use fake documents to obtain a City badge or access to Mesa facilities.”
City officials warned the contractor on May 21 to make sure no illegal workers were on their rolls and to make sure they were following the state’s E-Verify system. Wilson contacted the sheriff’s office the same day.
Mesa is implementing a worker verification program that will require more detailed information from city contractors about each of their workers. Also, Mayor Scott Smith announced in late November, that any contract worker requiring a security badge to access city building will have to show a federally or state-authorized identification card. Smith said at the time that the measures were taken to fill any gaps in preventing illegal immigrants from working in city buildings for private contractors.
