Tim Steller’s column: Tucson voters trapped by misbehaving constable, candidate

Before he became a Pima County constable, Francisco Lopez made his name locally by getting videos of fights outside downtown bars and posting them on his social media feeds as “TMZ Tucson.”

Now video has emerged of Lopez himself involved in downtown violence in January, three years into his first term as constable, an elected law-enforcement job.

That 2-plus-minute video by Lopez does not appear to show him committing a crime, because he is not the aggressor, walking away while an apparently intoxicated woman badgers him. But it still doesn’t reflect well on the off-duty constable, who laughs at the woman, calls her a “bitch” and knocks her down three times, delivering one especially sharp blow that appears to cause her head to hit the sidewalk.

“It’s all on video, bitch,” he says to the woman and the camera after that blow.

Now, in addition to that video, Lopez has been cited by the Pima County Sheriff’s Department for disorderly conduct for allegedly playing loud music with friends in the early morning hours of Aug. 4, in the county-owned vehicle he used for his constable job. He’s facing an ethics complaint for the video-recorded January incident, as well as a misdemeanor charge for the August case.

To make matters worse for Pima County voters, at the time of the recent incident, Lopez was with Gerard Acuña, a candidate for constable who also was cited that night. Acuña told deputies that he, Lopez and a third companion there were “on a special assignment to stake out” a home nearby, the Tucson Sentinel reported, in the first story on these incidents.

Lopez quickly told him to be quiet and acknowledged that wasn’t true.

Here’s the problem for voters: Both Lopez and Acuña are running unopposed in the November general election. In other words, the voters will have no alternatives on the ballot to Lopez in Precinct 2 and Acuña in precinct 9, although we can now see he is a candidate who tried to abuse the power of the office before even winning it, if the police reports on the incidents are accurate.

It’s still possible, until Sept. 4, for anyone to register as a write-in candidate for either of those races, but write-in candidacies have small chances of succeeding.

Most likely, Pima County residents appear to be in the sadly familiar position of having constables with serious ethical doubts hanging over them.

Urination, other constable problems

The office of constable is established not by the state constitution but by statute. Those state laws give constables the duty of serving legal papers, such as evictions, orders of protection, summonses and subpoenas.

The constables serve four-year terms, which means that when you elect a bad one, it can be a long four years.

Oscar Vasquez was elected in 2016 and re-elected unopposed in 2020 even though his first term was marred by accusations he damaged several county vehicles, drove too fast and urinated in public. He was suspended for four months at the same time he was re-elected unopposed.

In his second term, Vasquez took what he described as a “medical leave” for months, leaving documents unserved in his district. The Pima County Board of Supervisors suspended him again, and eventually he resigned under pressure.

This all occurred during a period in which the constables’ office was rocked by the August 2022 killing of constable Deborah Martinez Garibay. Martinez Garibay had been appointed to the constable’s position and was serving an eviction when killed by a Tucson tenant, who also killed the property manager, a neighbor and himself.

A subsequent lawsuit by the property manager’s widower alleged the constable was grossly negligent in the way she carried out the eviction, including that she had cocaine, amphetamines and alcohol in her system, but the state supreme court ruled that neither Pima County nor Martinez Garibay’s estate could be held liable.

Other stories of on- and off-duty misconduct by constables have occurred throughout Arizona over the years. A panel called the Constables Ethics Standards and Training Board exists to train constables and police their behavior, but of course it can’t filter out bad constables who voters elect. County boards of supervisors can remove them from office in extreme cases, but the ultimate power is held by voters.

‘Egregious and inconsistent’

On Thursday, the constable ethics board voted to look into a complaint against Lopez filed by his fellow Pima County constable, John Cammarano, who is a retired Tucson police officer.

“Based solely upon my review of the video, my training, and my experience in use-of-force instruction, it is my professional opinion that actions of the female did not constitute a threat of physical injury to Constable Lopez,” Cammarano said in his ethics complaint.

“It is unclear what started the confrontation however, at the initial contact, professional officer presence, clear verbal direction, and more directed control of the situation would have been a more appropriate response than knocking an individual down and walking away laughing.”

He went on, “The commentary recorded on the video such as laughing about the use of physical force and referring to the individual as ‘bitch’ were egregious and inconsistent with the standards expected of an elected law-enforcement official serving the citizens of Pima County.' "

A week before that complaint was filed, Pima County ended Lopez’s right to use a county-owned vehicle as a result of the Aug. 4 citation.

Presiding Constable Eric Krznarich said that Lopez owned up to that incident right away.

“I did talk to constable Lopez the morning after. He was very remorseful for the actions. He took full responsibility for them.”

Lopez’s attorney, Michael Storie, told me he suspects the Pima County deputies who responded to the Aug. 4 incident were at first inclined not to issue citations.

“My personal belief is when the deputies rolled up on them, they were just going to get a warning and asked to leave. But when his buddy started with the shenanigans of ‘We’re on official duty, we’re on official business’ … I think that made the deputies mad when they were getting the run-around from the buddy.”

Of course, that “buddy” is Acuña , who is on course to become a constable himself.

Legislature should act

The pay for constables depends in part on the volume of work required in their districts. Most of the Pima County constables make $75,000 per year, Krznarich told me, while Lopez in precinct 2 makes $68,000 for now, and Krznarich, who serves western Pima County, makes $26,000 per year.

So these aren’t especially high-paid jobs, which may explain why so few people are interested in running.

Many of the constables nevertheless do a good job. Krznarich said he did not know of problems with Lopez’s performance until these incidents arose.

But he acknowledged that legislative changes to the constables’ jobs may be necessary. He foresees greater training requirements being imposed, including handgun qualification, he said.

After all these years of watching messes spill out of the constables’ offices, I would like to see the Legislature go further and either eliminate them as elected offices, or allow counties to opt for a different way of selecting constables. It could even become part of the sheriff’s department.

In the meantime, it would be great if someone qualified signed up as a write-in candidate to challenge both Lopez and Acuña. The latter has already shown himself to be temperamentally unsuited to carry a gun and badge, and it turns out posting videos of fights was not a good indicator of a constable’s quality either.