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It's good to be a politician in Arizona.
Scott Bundgaard, the Majority Leader of the Arizona State Senate, was briefly taken into custody on suspicion of domestic violence Friday but was released because he was immune to arrest under rules of the Arizona State Constitution.
Aubry Ballard, who Phoenix police said is his girlfriend and was involved in a fight with Bundgaard, was arrested on one count of assault.
Bundgaard, R-Peoria, and Ballard had minor injuries, said Phoenix police Sgt. Tommy Thompson.
Thompson said police responded to a call at about 11:20 p.m. Friday of a man pulling a woman out of a gold vehicle, which was stopped northbound next to the median on Arizona 51, just south of Cactus Road.
When officers arrived, they said Bundgaard, 43, and Ballard, 34, his passenger, showed marks of a physical altercation, "which constituted an act of domestic violence," Thompson said. After being taken into custody, Bundgaard told officers that because he is an Arizona state senator, he is immune from arrest. Thompson said the department confirmed Bundgaard's statement and he was not arrested...read on
So his girlfriend gets arrested and he gets a pass. Did you know that Gov. Jan Brewer also used this rule to her advantage in 1988 over an alcohol-related car crash?
On May 4, 1988, a car driven by Brewer rear-ended a van on Interstate 17.
The van's driver, William Holland, was not injured in the crash. Brewer also emerged unscathed, though there was significant damage to her car.
DPS officers at the scene believed Brewer was intoxicated. Unsteady on her feet, her breath smelling of alcohol, Brewer failed a series of field sobriety tests.
Brewer was placed in handcuffs and taken to a DPS station, where she was supposed to undergo a test to determine her blood-alcohol level. But no test was ever performed. After a discussion with a DPS lieutenant, two officers drove Brewer home.
--The DPS, after learning that Brewer was a state senator, told her that she had immunity from arrest. No charges were filed in the case. Brewer, who says she remembers the crash vividly, maintains that she was not impaired.
Brewer told different stories about what led to the crash. She told officers on the scene that a car had rear-ended her, pushing her car into Holland's, and then driven away.
But officers found no damage to the back of Brewer's car, and they noted that a layer of dust on the bumper was undisturbed.
The next day, Brewer told the Phoenix Gazette that a white truck had swerved in front of Holland, suggesting that he had suddenly braked.
"I guess I might have been following too closely or something," she said at the time.
Wow, she changed her story a few times. AZ Central concludes that:
It appears that officers were right not to arrest Brewer while lawmakers were in session. But it is unclear why officers did not complete their investigation and pursue charges.
Under the law she was released, but should have been investigated at a later time. And Brewer as Governor also helped ease restrictions in Arizona against the sale of alcohol on Sunday's.
