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A high-ranking Phoenix officer used a racial slur in front of other police executives and discussed lessening discipline against a female officer based on her attractiveness, according to an internal city report.
The Phoenix Equal Opportunity Department “otherwise substantiated” multiple allegations against then-Assistant Chief Steve Martos.
Those allegations include Martos calling a top African American officer “Blackie” and separately telling other assistant chiefs that he wanted to “save” a female officer, who was caught using the n-word on body camera, from termination because “she was hot.”
Both incidents were alleged to have happened in May 2021, under former Chief Jeri Williams’ administration.
Investigators also found Williams’ second-in-command, Executive Assistant Chief Mike Kurtenbach, witnessed Martos’ actions but failed to report and address the misconduct.
In a statement, Phoenix acknowledged the EOD report but said it was just “one step” in an ongoing investigation. “This process is not yet complete, so drawing any conclusions would be premature,” a city spokesperson wrote. Phoenix’s full statement can be found at the bottom of this report.
Martos did not provide a comment.
As for Kurtenbach, he retained a lawyer ahead of ABC15’s report and threatened to take legal action.
In statements sent on behalf of Kurtenbach, his representatives said he was not found in violation of policies before he retired earlier this year and added that the EOD report was a “draft document.”
The EOD report is titled “Final Investigative Report,” and it was sent with a cover letter to multiple city leaders and HR officials.
The report further documents systemic issues with Phoenix police and highlights the dysfunction, distrust, and deception at the top of the department.
The allegations against Martos and Kurtenbach were made by three former assistant chiefs, who are currently suing the city because they claim they were unfairly demoted and scapegoated for a separate scandal involving protesters falsely charged as gang members.
The former three assistant chiefs are Gabe Lopez, Lawrence Hein, and John Collins; and they made the allegations while they were under a separate internal investigation because of secret recordings obtained by ABC15.
SECRET RECORDINGS: Top cops say Phoenix Police Chief Williams misled public about protest scandal
One community leader said he was not surprised by the messy situation based on past and ongoing problems with Phoenix police.
“You know that saying, ‘the fish rots at the head,’ it just goes down,” said Larnell Farmer, a leader with the West Valley NAACP and retired police detective from Illinois. “It’s only as good as the people running the organization.”
At the time of the substantiated allegations, Martos was the assistant chief in charge of overseeing the department’s internal affairs unit.
He’s now a commander in the patrol division.
As for Kurtenbach, he retired in early 2023 and took a job overseeing security for Arizona’s Department of Education.
RACIAL SLUR ALLEGATION
During a meeting in May 2021, multiple assistant chiefs were discussing recent promotions during a meeting on the top floor of Phoenix police headquarters.
One of them was the promotion of an African American lieutenant to commander.
The copy of the EOD report obtained by ABC15 has the employee’s name redacted, but the station confirmed the chiefs were discussing Derek Elmore.
The three assistant chiefs who made the allegation claimed that Martos had trouble remembering Elmore’s name and referred to him as “Blackie” at least once, possibly twice.
According to the three chiefs, Kurtenbach defended Martos by saying, “That’s just Steve being Steve,” records show.
But Martos and Kurtenbach denied the slur was ever used when interviewed by EOD investigators.
“(Kurtenbach) finally noted that the timing of this allegation was suspect as the conduct at issue was not recent and the allegation was made after three individuals were reassigned from Assistant Chiefs to Commander positions and because they had recently filed a lawsuit against him in particular,” according to internal investigators.
The EOD report did a credibility analysis on the three assistant chiefs and outlined a dozen reasons why the investigators felt their allegations and interviews about what happened were believable.
Farmer doesn’t doubt it happened.
“It’s always important to go back into that officer’s career and see if those biases were placed on people he arrested or any cases they were involved in,” he said. “Even in the department, internal affairs, if you got somebody with that mindset investigating other officers, how do those investigations go?”
FEMALE OFFICER DISCIPLINE ALLEGATION
The three assistant chiefs also alleged that Martos talked about lessening discipline against a female officer because of her attractiveness.
The chiefs claimed that Martos had shown them photos of the woman to prove his point, and EOD substantiated the claim.
In May 2021, Phoenix police began investigating Officer Andrea Tenuta because she was caught referring to an African American woman as the n-word on body camera.
According to the EOD report, “Lopez reported that during a conversation about Ofc. Tenuta using the ‘N-word’, after he said, ‘Well, we just lost another one. That’s a terminating offense,’ Assistant Chief Martos brought over a picture of her possibly from Instagram and said, ‘Check her out. She’s hot. ... I’m going to try to save her.’”
Martos, who served as a department public information officer for years, denied that he ever made such a statement and further told investigators that he didn’t know how to access social media to view images.
Kurtenbach also denied that he ever witnessed Martos talking about lessening discipline for women based on their appearance.
Officer Tenuta was not terminated, records show.
ABC15 confirmed she’s now on the “Brady” list.
BROADER ISSUES, RESPONSES
The final EOD investigation was sent to interim Chief Michael Sullivan and other top city leaders on November 18, 2022.
Sullivan, who took over in September, reorganized his executive leadership team in December.
Both Martos and Kurtenbach were demoted, but it’s not clear if the reduction in rank was because of the EOD report.
Elmore, who was the target of the alleged racial slur, was promoted to executive assistant chief. He did not provide a comment for this report.
While the EOD investigation found the allegations against Martos and Kurtenbach “did in fact occur,” the city did not discipline them based on the report because the complaints were deemed to be “untimely.”
“Although untimely, EOD has found that some of the alleged conduct did in fact occur and could have violated (city rules) but for the time constraint,” according to the EOD investigation. “Those allegations are being reported to PSB for review and determination as to whether some other policies have been violated.”
PSB stands for the Phoenix Police Department’s “Professional Standards Bureau,” which is more commonly known as internal affairs.
In the city’s statement, a spokesperson wrote, “It’s important to point out the report you reference is not final product of the investigation but rather one step in our employee due process.”
The statement added that Sullivan is “moving forward with a commitment to be a self-assessing, self-correcting organization.”
“It’s going to be interesting to see what they say when this report comes out and what direction they want to go in,” Farmer said about city leaders. “It’s going to say a lot about the new leadership in the police department. I hope and pray the new chief does the right thing. I’ll be surprised if he does.”
Phoenix is under a sweeping Department of Justice pattern or practice investigation, which was announced in late 2021.
The federal investigation is ongoing.
A copy of Phoenix’s full emailed statement is below:
It’s important to point out the report you reference is not final product of the investigation but rather one step in our employee due process. The process includes sending the initial EOD report through the Investigative Review Process (IRP) where changes can be recommended. The report then goes back to PSB for finalization. This process is not yet complete, so drawing any conclusions would be premature. With that said, the Phoenix Police Department, under the leadership of Interim Chief Michael Sullivan is moving forward with a commitment to be a self-assessing, self-correcting organization. To achieve this goal, Chief Sullivan built a new executive leadership team. An interview process was conducted for all executive positions. The new executive team selected by Chief Sullivan is the team moving the department forward, building a world class police department to service the residents and visitors of Phoenix.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education, Kurtenbach’s current employer, sent the following statement:
ABC 15 is basing this story on a draft investigative document for case #2023-00321 that was not finalized. In February, 2023, the City of Phoenix and Phoenix P.D. entered into a settlement agreement with Mike Kurtenbach in which the allegations brought against him were found to be unsubstantiated. ‘The City agrees that after the administrative process, all open City investigations involving allegations against Employee as of February 3, 2023, will be closed as Unresolved. The City agrees that after the administrative process, the allegations in Equal Opportunity Department ("EOD") Investigation #2023-00321 involving Employee that are untimely will be closed as Unsubstantiated.’ If ABC 15 intends to report otherwise, Mike Kurtenbach will seek a remedy in court, because ABC 15 now has the facts and anything to the contrary would not only be reckless, but deliberately untruthful and therefore actionable under N.Y. Times v. Sullivan.
Kurtenbach’s attorney also issued a statement.
“The Phoenix Equal Opportunity Division conducted an investigation numbered 2023-00321. This investigation resolved with a finding of No Policy Violation. EOD has a multi-step process for investigating allegations of alleged misconduct, which includes multiple stages of review. Even prior to the conclusion of the review process, EOD determined that no policy violations occurred by Mr. Kurtenbach. While the review process was underway, Mr. Kurtenbach honorably retired from the Phoenix Police Department and accepted employment outside of the City. The City reviewed information submitted by Mr. Kurtenbach and his representatives, and all parties agreed with EOD’s finding of no policy violation. Any reporting to the contrary is false.”
Contact ABC15 Chief Investigator Dave Biscobing at Dave@ABC15.com.