PHOENIX — If you want to know why the two Phoenix cops, who repeatedly beat and tasered an innocent deaf man with cerebral palsy, got their suspensions overturned... that’s a secret.
The special city board that rescinded the suspension heard the officers’ appeals in private.
And Phoenix’s Civil Service Board doesn’t have to explain their votes publicly.
“Honestly, it was a total surprise,” said Sarah Ruf, Director of Communications for the Arizona Developmental Disabilities Planning Council. “It was like a gut punch all over again… The case was really, really egregious, just really heartbreaking for our community.”
ABC15 has spent weeks working to understand how and why the five-person board decided to erase the 24-hour suspensions against Officers Benjamin Harris and Kyle Sue.
Board members ignored multiple interview requests, including an in-person invitation from ABC15 to discuss their decision about the high-profile beating of Tyron McAlpin, which made national headlines and has been collectively viewed millions of times.
Ruf blasted the lack of transparency in the process.
“We had no idea there was this process that was not transparent going on behind the scenes to really lift any meaningful disciplinary measures,” she said.
Civil Service Board members are appointed by the Phoenix City Council. [Councilmembers also declined requests for comment.]
The board holds monthly public meetings to handle appeals from city employees challenging their discipline.
But at an employee’s request, their cases can be heard confidentially.
So, the city then kicks out any public members for the presentation.
The public has no ability to learn what was presented. Phoenix officials also told ABC15 the city’s official report and recommendation about their public employees’ discipline to its public board is not a public record.
In response to a public records request filed for documents related to the cases against Officers Harris and Sue, the city provided a three-page document for each.
An example of the document in Sue’s hearing is below.
The document shows how members individually voted and lists the people who addressed the board during the appeal hearing.
In a 4-1 vote, the board overturned Sue’s suspension during its February meeting, records show.
The board heard Harris’s appeal in May, voting 3-1 to overturn his suspension.
In both cases, board member Robbin Coulon was the lone vote in favor of keeping the suspensions.
Through the records and a police spokesperson, ABC15 confirmed Chief Matt Giordano addressed the board in the hearings for both officers. Archive video recorded during the public portion of the May meeting shows Giordano greeting, smiling, and laughing with the attorney for Harris and Sue before they went and talked about the cases in private.
Giordano, who was not the police chief at the time of the McAlpin's arrest, declined an interview request.
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A police spokesperson emailed ABC15 the following statement.
“Chief Giordano attended both Civil Service Boards and supported the policy violations sustained against Officers Sue and Harris, even though the investigation was completed before he took office. The Civil Service Board operates independently, and no City department has authority over its decisions.”
ABC15 confirmed the city did not interview or consult with any experts on disabilities or movement disorders for the internal investigation against the officers or in the appeals.
Ruf said missing that perspective is a problem.
“Anybody who watches that video is going to be sick to their stomachs,” she said. “I have no idea what anybody could have done differently.
Officers Harris and Sue arrested McAlpin back in August 2024.
The officers initially went after McAlpin based on false and unverified allegations from another man, body camera video shows. After Harris and Sue repeatedly punched and tased McAlpin, they charged him with resisting arrest and aggravated assault.
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office dropped McAlpin’s charges the week after ABC15’s first report on the arrest.
At the time the 24-hour suspensions were first announced in March 2025, former Chief Michael Sullivan promised his department would “learn from this and move forward together as a stronger department and community.”
Inside the city, the case was controversial and split factions within the police department.
The rank-and-file police union said Sue and Harris were initially found in policy after an internal investigation, but Sullivan reversed course and issued the suspensions.
Union officials called the then-chief’s decision “shameful” and “pathetic.”
Contact ABC15 Chief Investigator Dave Biscobing at dave@abc15.com.
