A Tucson police lieutenant who was fired for withholding and leaking information in a high-profile murder case will not lose his law-enforcement certification.
The Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board, or AZPOST, entered a consent agreement with Wendell Hunt to suspend his certification for one year, and the penalty was retroactive. It expired in December.
A final report from the board shows it and Hunt settled the matter in March. He waived a hearing and appeal process.
Hunt technically is eligible to apply for work as a police officer in Arizona, but "despite the ruling of AZPOST, Wendell Hunt will not be a police officer in Tucson," said Capt. Brett Klein, chief of staff at the Tucson Police Department.
"The Police Department doesn't dismiss officers casually," Klein said. In Hunt's case, there was sufficient cause for termination, and the firing was upheld by the city's Civil Service Commission, he said.
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Police Chief Richard Miranda moved to fire Hunt in December 2004, after an investigation revealed he withheld information about the killing of Dr. David Brian Stidham.
Pima County Sheriff's Department reports on the case indicated Hunt may have been disclosing details about the case to a girlfriend who worked at the office of Dr. Bradley Schwartz, who is charged with hiring Ronald Bruce Bigger to kill Stidham, his former partner. Schwartz is on trial now in Pima County Superior Court.
An internal-affairs detective who ordered an examination of Hunt's department computer after he was fired later found more than 1,100 pornographic images. More than half were under a "porn" bookmark, records show.
Hunt worked for TPD for 17 years, but he had a history of disciplinary action. He received a 30-day suspension for having sex on duty in his patrol car with a woman he'd invited on a civilian tour. He videotaped her naked, too. Earlier, he had been demoted from sergeant to officer for a number of infractions, though that later was reversed.
Another review by police found Hunt committed sexual harassment against a police dispatcher, but a formal finding of a violation from the city was not made because the woman didn't file her claim within 180 days of the most recent incident.
And in another case, Hunt received a 30-hour suspension for sleeping on duty and a 40-hour suspension for neglect or dereliction of duty and absence from duty without leave.
