Two former Phoenix police officers accused of beating and repeatedly tasing a couple during an Aug. 5 traffic stop told investigators they believed the driver was intoxicated, according to court documents. One officer later acknowledged he did not report the incident because he feared the fallout from multiple policy violations.
Newly filed probable cause documents detail what Luis Vasquez Jr. and Antonio Felix told detectives before their Aug. 22 arrests and firings. Vasquez acknowledged punching the driver and pointing his department-issued handgun at him, documents said. Investigators also believe Felix used his Taser against both the driver and passenger.
Vasquez punched the driver multiple times in the head, face, eyes, nose and groin while Felix repeatedly tased him, investigators said. Data from Felix's department-issued Taser showed 29 electrical discharges during the encounter, according to court documents.
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Both the driver and passenger had burn marks that were consistent with Taser contact, and the driver had bruising around an eye, according to investigators. Vasquez also returned to the area afterward and found the passenger's cellphone before it was lost, documents said.
About an hour later, Tempe police found the damaged Dodge Charger and asked Phoenix police to notify its registered owner. Vasquez and Felix were assigned that call, and investigators said they later denied interacting with the car beyond running its license plate, documents said.
Investigators found no body camera footage or police report documenting the stop.
Here's more on what happened during the incident, according to court documents.
Officers said they suspected an intoxicated driver
Vasquez told investigators he and Felix began following a Dodge Charger in what he described as a high crime area after seeing driving behavior he considered consistent with an intoxicated driver, documents said. Felix gave detectives a similar explanation.
Phoenix Police Chief Matt Giordano previously said investigators found no indication the officers knew the couple before the encounter.
The officers ran the Charger's Arizona license plate after stopping the couple around 11:30 p.m., according to a Tempe police report. Vasquez told detectives the plate was not listed as stolen but was registered to an older woman who did not match the person driving the car, documents said.
The officers were traveling in a Phoenix police Chevrolet Tahoe, with Felix behind the wheel, according to documents.
The officers turned their lights and siren on and off as they followed the Charger, documents said. Investigators said that was not how traffic stops were normally conducted.
The officers followed the car from around 11th Avenue and Southern Avenue to 15th Avenue and Broadway Road, where it stopped, documents said.
Records detail force used against couple
The police vehicle struck the rear of the Charger after it stopped, documents said.
Detectives later measured the damage to the Charger and said markings on its bumper matched the width of the push bars on a Phoenix police Tahoe, court documents said.
Vasquez told investigators the officers identified themselves as police and ordered the driver and passenger out of the Charger. When they did not comply, he said, the officers told them they were under arrest, according to documents.
The man and woman have not been identified by name, but the man was behind the wheel, documents said.
Vasquez said the driver refused to get out and reached behind the passenger seat after slightly lowering his window. Vasquez acknowledged grabbing the partly lowered window while trying to open the door, according to documents. He said the window bent and broke as the driver pulled the door shut.
Investigators said Vasquez then reached inside and unlocked the doors before trying to pull the driver from the Charger by his hair while punching him, documents said.
Vasquez punched the man several times with a closed fist in the head, face, eyes, nose and groin, investigators said.
Taser use and gun threat
Felix told investigators the encounter grew more tense because the driver and passenger refused commands to get out and reached around inside the Charger, documents said. He said their movements made him fear for his life and Vasquez's life.
Investigators said Felix put the passenger in an arm control hold and threatened to break her arm before Tasing her on the right thigh and back and removing her from the Charger, according to documents. She was handcuffed behind her back and placed in the rear of the police Tahoe.
Felix then returned to the driver and repeatedly pressed the Taser against his right arm and rib area while Vasquez kept punching him and trying to pull him from the Charger, investigators said.
Former Phoenix police officers Luis Vasquez Jr. and Antonio Felix, accused of a violent stop, appeared Monday in Maricopa County Superior Court.
Vasquez acknowledged that Felix used the Taser in an effort to gain compliance. Investigators said Vasquez told Felix to keep Tasing the driver until he followed his commands, according to documents.
Vasquez also acknowledged drawing his department-issued handgun and pointing it at the driver, documents said. He warned the man that he would be shot if he did not get out.
Vasquez told the man he would shoot him in three seconds and began counting down, investigators said. Felix then told Vasquez he should shoot the driver if he got out of the car or "did anything stupid," according to court documents.
Driver fled, passenger was released on side of the road
The driver briefly got out of the Charger before getting back inside and driving away, according to documents. The woman remained with Vasquez and Felix after the driver fled.
The officers then removed her from the rear of the police Tahoe, took off her handcuffs and released her, documents said. Vasquez told detectives they left her alone on the side of the road.
The woman told investigators the officers warned that the driver was probably going to get shot and said they knew where she lived before leaving the area, according to documents. Vasquez acknowledged telling her that they knew where she lived, according to his statement to detectives.
Taser data and injuries support couple's account
Investigators later seized Felix's department-issued Axon Taser 7 and examined data stored on the device. The forensic download recorded six safety-switch activations and 29 drive-stun electrical discharges during the encounter, police said.
The data was consistent with the couple's statements that they had been repeatedly tased, detectives said. Both also photographed their injuries and gave the images to Tempe police. The photos showed burn marks on both people that were consistent with contact from a Taser 7, investigators said.
The driver also had bruising around an eye and raised, swollen marks on his body, according to documents. He sought medical treatment at a hospital about four hours after the encounter, documents said. The couple still had visible burn marks about two weeks later, investigators said.
Vasquez said he feared consequences of reporting the stop
Neither officer activated their body cameras during the encounter, according to department records. Investigators also found no incident report or required contact form. They found no radio, computer or supervisor notification documenting what happened, documents said.
The officers did not document the couple's detention, the force used against them or the woman's handcuffing and placement in the police Tahoe, records said. Vasquez acknowledged failing to activate his camera or report the encounter. He told investigators he stayed silent because he feared the consequences of numerous policy violations.
Vasquez also acknowledged returning to the area afterward to collect items left during the struggle. He told investigators he found the woman's cellphone, documents said.
Felix did not explain why the officers failed to request backup or notify dispatch or a supervisor during or after the encounter, according to documents. Investigators also asked why he returned to the patrol vehicle at one point if he believed the officers faced a threat of serious injury.
He had no answer, documents said.
Officers closed a call from Tempe police about the same Charger
About an hour later, Tempe police found the damaged Charger stalled near Priest Drive and Baseline Road with a broken window.
Tempe police then asked Phoenix police to notify the car's registered owner.
Vasquez and Felix reported that they tried contacting the owner at their apartment and, after no one answered the door, left a voicemail for a Tempe officer, documents said. The two then closed the call without taking further action.
Phoenix police dispatch then directly asked Vasquez and Felix whether they had interacted with the Charger. Both men denied any interaction beyond running its license plate earlier that night, investigators said.
Investigators cited that sequence of events in the hindering prosecution allegations against both former officers.
Officers face kidnapping, assault and other charges
Court records listed seven counts against Vasquez. They include two aggravated assault counts and one count each of kidnapping, hindering prosecution, tampering with physical evidence, threatening and intimidating and criminal damage.
Felix's court records list six counts, including two aggravated assault counts and one count each of kidnapping, hindering prosecution, tampering with physical evidence and threatening and intimidating.
A court set a $100,000 secured appearance bond for each officer. Both were scheduled for status conferences Aug. 28 and preliminary hearings Aug. 31.
