PHOENIX — On a Thursday morning in late March, Phoenix Police Chief Michael Sullivan called an urgent meeting with a top commander and several city attorneys.
It’s because the night before, ABC15 broke a story about a major issue inside his department: a homicide detective, who’s married to one of Sullivan’s hand-picked assistant chiefs, had repeatedly mishandled evidence and the mistakes were impacting dozens of murder cases.
So, what happened in the chief’s meeting?
In court, Phoenix claims that information is confidential and would violate attorney-client privilege.
“These tactics once again evidence cover up and delay,” according to a recent motion filed by David Le Lievre, a defense attorney in one of the impacted murder cases.
ABC15 has obtained internal police documents and court records that confirm Sullivan held a 30-minute meeting on March 30, 2023.
The meeting was called because ABC15 had just reported how homicide detective Jennifer DiPonzio repeatedly mishandled evidence and the mistakes had impacted at least 37 active court cases and 61 police investigations.
The date of Sullivan’s meeting is important.
Throughout this year, and increasingly in recent months, defense attorneys have caught Phoenix police withholding, hiding, and obfuscating information about the extent of DiPonzio’s misconduct.
ABC15 also discovered Phoenix police may have violated state law in January by failing to inform the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board about her mistakes when she retired under a confidential disability claim.
Prosecutors as well as attorneys representing the city and DiPonzio have repeatedly told judges in criminal and civil cases that she’s too unwell to be interviewed or testify.
Sullivan’s knowledge of the DiPonzio situation will now be the subject of a dispute within an ongoing murder case -- and could potentially impact dozens of others.
Le Lievre, who represents defendant Eddie Vaugh, filed a motion asking the court to compel Phoenix officials to answer questions about that meeting.
DiPonzio was the main case agent in the investigation against Vaughn.
Le Lievre’s motion comes after city attorneys interjected during his pre-trial defense interview with the Phoenix PD Violent Crimes Bureau commander to get information about the timeline of events surrounding DiPonzio and her mistakes.
When the commander was asked about his meeting with Sullivan, City Attorney Jeff Sparks said, “I’m going to jump in here, um, correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe it was a meeting with the Chief and several attorneys from the City Attorney’s Office… The City’s position is that that meeting is attorney-client privileged because one of the primary purposes was for the department to obtain legal advice.”
In recent months, defense teams have slowly forced the release of more information about her mistakes.
It began early this year when officials finally disclosed that DiPonzio didn’t properly impound or document more than 50 audio-recorded interviews in recent years.
That first disclosure was just a 24-page fact-finding document.
But after a defense attorney got DiPonzio’s supervisor to admit there had been previous issues, police and prosecutors were forced to release 14,000 pages of additional files that document complaints and concerns throughout her career.
Jennifer DiPonzio is married to Assistant Chief Nick DiPonzio, who was promoted by Sullivan in December 2022.
Earlier this year, ABC15 uncovered that the county attorney’s office put DiPonzio on a more secretive version of the so-called “Brady” list, which documents officers with histories of integrity concerns.
The city declined to comment.
Contact ABC15 Chief Investigator Dave Biscobing at Dave@ABC15.com.
