We have all had the experience of reading something in the newspapers and commenting to ourselves that if this were written by Hollywood, we would call this a far-out plot. But, this is a real story from the great State of Arizona, and it appears hard to believe, but, yes, it really happened:
An Arizona state senator involved in an apparent freeway-shoulder scuffle with his girlfriend was not detained because he has immunity from arrest while the legislature is in session, police said.
Officers in Phoenix who were called to investigate a reported altercation found that both Sen. Scott Bundgaard and his girlfriend, Aubry Ballard, had marks suggesting a physical dispute, police spokesman Sgt. Tommy Thompson said.
Bundgaard, a Republican and the state senate’s majority leader, was allowed to go — although prosecutors will review the case and could later file charges, Thompson said. Ballard was arrested on suspcion of misdemeanor assault and taken to jail. …
Bundgaard said he pulled Ballard out of the car, but denied ever hitting or pushing her. …
“To go from putting on a beautiful dress for a great date to a fundraiser to ending up on the side of a freeway? I don’t have another tear left to cry,” she said. “I’m still trying to get my mind around a few things: Scott’s actions, the 17 hours I spent in jail awaiting processing, my bruises, scrapes and soreness and his statements to the media.”
Here is another reportage on the story:
One Arizona lawmaker avoided arrest after a domestic dispute with his girlfriend with one magic word: immunity.
Arizona Senate majority leader Scott Bundgaard told police that they couldn’t arrest him because he was a state senator after they responded to a call about a man pulling a passenger out of a car on a highway median.
Police told CNN that they found Bundgaard and his girlfriend, Aubry Ballard, with marks on their legs that appeared to be from a physical altercation. But as a state senator, Bundgaard was allowed to go.
Ballard, meanwhile, was booked early Saturday on one count of assault.
So, let’s look at this story. A woman is dragged out of a car on a highway median (witness report); the driver of the car admits dragging her out of the car; the police find her with marks on her legs and bruises that appeared to be from a physical altercation. Most times, either neither would have been arrested, or both would have been arrested. But, if we are honest, the majority of the times, the man would have been arrested. However, the man was the leader of the State Senate, and there just happened to be a handy law that gave him immunity from the law. And, rather than taking his lumps, the leader of the State Senate made absolutely sure to insist on his privileges even though the Senate was not in actual session at the time of the almost-arrest.
Now if you cannot arrest one of the people in a domestic dispute, for those reasons, a smart cop would wish to avoid the political mess, particularly with a woman who has been hurt in the encounter. If nothing else, a smart cop would delay by taking the woman to the hospital and making sure that she was, uhm, held for observation, or any excuse not to take her to jail until a few hours had passed, particularly since the majority of the time (not always, but the overwhelming majority) the woman is the victim.
But, no, this is Arizona. And, the law is the law, right? This is the state in which someone with brown skin can be stopped and forced to prove their citizenship on simple suspicion by the police. And, apparently, this is the state in which if you are a white male politician, why you are exempt from the normal laws that apply to the rest of us. One could not make this up!
It may surprise you that Father Orthoduck is fully in favor of the laws which give immunity to politicians during the time when the legislature is in session, but with a caveat. The laws that have to do with immunity come from a very good historical reason. The history shows that one of the tactics of the King of England, and English politicians, was to conveniently accuse politicians of high crimes and misdemeanors right before a crucial vote. They would, of course, be cleared afterwards, but it would certainly delay their possibility of voting for, or against, a particular bill. Thus, Father Orthoduck is in favor of those laws in the USA which give immunity to a politician during the time that the legislature is in session.
But, this is not what was going on here. Those laws must be interpreted with a bit of common sense, something which has been lacking in the State of Arizona for a while. And, in the case of the Senator, he should have been ethical enough to not abuse a law meant to protect a legislator from political tricks in order to keep himself out of jail. But, ethics are something that only ever applies to your political opponent. Let me repeat, to put a hurt woman in jail for 17 hours while allowing her probable politically-connected attacker to go free is the height of no common sense whatsoever. Meanwhile, while the woman was incommunicado, that particular politically-connected majority leader of the Senate, had the freedom to get his side of the story out into the media without fear of contradiction, and he did. Welcome to Arizona.
We live in troubling times.
Sometimes I’m embarrassed to live in Arizona. But at least we can concealed carry without a permit now. 🙂
I get that a legislator should be immune from prosecution for whatever he/she says on the floor of the legislature during a session, but immune from prosecution in general? That’s nuts. It’s a Get Out of Jail Free card, except that they’re not playing Monopoly. I hope Arizona decides to join the the civilized world again soon, but there don’t seem to be many signs of that happening.
The reason the law is worded so broadly is because if a complainant can get you arrested, say, within 17 hours of an important vote, you may not get out of jail before the vote. That is, the law is meant to prevent the type of political chicanery that used to go on in the British Empire around the time of King George III.
But, it is expected that the legislator will do his/her part and not abuse that law. In this case, there was clear abuse of the law by the legislator. But, even worse, there was a large degree of stupidity by the state police of Arizona who jailed the probable victim (remember the witness statement). It leaves them all too open to charges that they did not wish to offend the man who could cut their budget in half.
More than that, if you are a woman, or a Latino, or an African-American in Arizona, it certainly reinforces every stereotype you ever had about while males in power.
Shameful if you ask me.