Warning: This report contains graphic language.
After a judge permanently threw out the controversial criminal case against a woman charged in the on-duty traffic death of Phoenix Police Officer Paul Rutherford, Maricopa County Attorney Rachell Mitchell stands by her office’s decision to bring the case.
“We looked at what our prosecutors did in this case, scrutinized it, and didn’t find any wrongdoing on their part,” Mitchell said during a press briefing.
The criminal case against Nubia Rodriguez was dismissed for a lack of probable cause after a three-day hearing last month.
The ruling ended a years-long prosecution in which the court previously found police and prosecutors presented a troubling, false, and biased case to grand jurors to get negligent homicide charges against Rodriguez in the first place.
“This was vengeance, nothing but vengeance,” said Armando Nava, one of two defense attorneys representing Rodriguez, in an interview with ABC15. “There’s no justice to be found here.”
New testimony presented during September’s probable cause hearing and recently-obtained records by ABC15 show there was a high level of influence, pressure, and bias inside the Phoenix Police Department and Maricopa County Attorney’s Office.
Rodriguez’s defense attorneys said it’s clear the highly-sensitive and emotional case should have been handled by another agency.
“I don’t think Phoenix ever should have been involved in this case,” Nava said. “It was clear from the day of the event, they wanted a certain result.”
On March 21, 2019, Rodriguez hit Rutherford in the two-way turn lane on Indians School Road near 75thAvenue.
Rutherford, who wasn’t wearing a safety vest, was working a traffic accident when he suddenly ran into traffic without looking both ways. Business surveillance video shows him dart into traffic.
It was information and footage that was never provided to the grand jury.
During the three-day probable cause hearing, a Phoenix accident reconstruction expert said there was internal anger about including those facts about Rutherford’s fault in final reports.
“There were, nothing directly to my face, but I heard rumblings of why are you putting that in there,” said Det. Greggory Gibbs. “And I defended my position. I said I believe that needs to be in my report to be fair.”
On cross examination, the defense asked Gibbs if he knew who was behind those “rumblings.”
“I don’t know specifically,” he said. “That’s why I said ‘nothing to my face.’ I assumed other detectives and other officers who got wind of that.”
ABC15 also obtained internal text messages sent between another detective on the case and the lead prosecutor.
In May 2022, Det. Michael Davidson and MCAO prosecutor Tiffany Brady were discussing an upcoming hearing in the case and one of Rodriguez’s defense attorneys.
Davidson wrote, “He’s a bitch. Fuck ‘em.”
Brady responded, “You really shouldn’t hold your feelings in.”
“When a fact witness starts saying things like that, ‘F ‘em,’ that’s an indication and motivation of bias,” said Lawrence Koplow, who is Rodriguez’s other defense attorney. “And the problem I really have is the prosecution essentially going along with the joke.”
County Attorney Rachel Mitchel disputed the claim.
“Could a prosecutor have responded to that differently, certainly,” Mitchell said in a press briefing.
When asked by ABC15 if the prosecutor should have responded differently, she said, “I understand the (prosecutor’s) comment is basically calling that out that’s probably not the most artful way to say it.”
The detective’s text and apparent bias didn’t stop MCAO from putting him on the stand during the preliminary hearing four months later. [Davidson’s was also rebuked specifically by the court for his 2020 testimony in front of the grand jury.]
Throughout the case, the defense repeatedly accused the prosecution of withholding exculpatory evidence, manipulating faulty speed data from the car’s infotainment system, and ignoring Rutherford’s own fault in what happened.
One example: Detective Davidson interviewed a MCAO employee involved in an unrelated crash months earlier, in which Rutherford responded.
The employee, Karin Pilant, described “risky” behavior by Rutherford after her crash as he was assessing her car and the truck that hit her, according to a recording obtained by ABC15.
“While I'm standing there waiting for Rutherford to do his thing, I'm just standing on the curb. The trucker driver is also not at the same time Rutherford is, but I also saw him a couple of times walk out into the lane, to look at the trucker's stand, I don't know what the hell he was thinking,” Pilant said.
She later added, “I hope I'm being clear. Like I said, I wasn't accusatory or thought he did anything wrong. I just thought, shit, get out of the lane. What are you doing out there?”
At the end of the preliminary hearing, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Joseph Kreamer said Rutherford’s actions – running into traffic -- could not be ignored despite the prosecution’s insistence.
The judge then apologized to everyone in the courtroom.
“I am so sorry for the loss of Officer Rutherford, and I wish wasn’t here giving the news to his family, but I am. And I’m sorry that’s the case,” Kreamer said. “I’m also sorry for the pain that has continued for others, including Ms. Rodriguez.”
Her defense attorneys believe this is a tragic case in which there are only victims – and no villains.
"I think this case is only victims, unfortunately,” Nava said. “I think it’s tragic we lost Officer Rutherford the way we did. But the Phoenix Police Department’s actions, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office's actions afterwards, they victimized Ms. Rodriguez. They put her through a nightmare for the past three years.”
Contact ABC15 Chief Investigator Dave Biscobing at Dave@ABC15.com.
