PHOENIX — During a contentious public meeting that ended with Ed Zuercher being rehired to run Phoenix, he presented a misleading version of how he handled one of the biggest scandals in city history.
Zuercher original retirement in 2021 came in the wake of an ABC15 investigation.
The news station uncovered that city police and county prosecutors had colluded to invent a fake gang and falsely charge protesters as members. ABC15 also exposed a police challenge coin that celebrated violence against demonstrators and contained language tied to hate speech.
The scandal directly led to a Department of Justice investigation into the Phoenix Police Department.
Before the mayor and council narrowly voted to approve Zuercher’s return as city manager, Councilmember Anna Hernandez asked him about the protest scandal.
"This all happened under your leadership as city manager," Hernandez said.
Zuercher responded by claiming he initiated investigations into the misconduct.
"You mentioned the gang charges and others. I was the one who initiated the investigation of those things. I hired the outside law firm to give us the investigation, an independent view. I took those investigations and reports, and I used those to administer discipline where I thought it was warranted. And we used it to begin many of the reforms you are seeing today," Zuercher said.
Zuercher initially resisted hiring an outside law firm to investigate the gang charges.
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During a February 2021 interview with ABC15, Zuercher said he only planned to have a firm investigate the challenge coin, but not the gang charges. He wanted to wait for the Maricopa County Attorney's Office to first complete its own review of prosecutors’ actions.
"I would like to get the information from the county attorney," Zuercher said.
When pressed about waiting indefinitely, Zuercher responded, "I don't think that's passive at all. I think it's people getting information from people. It's people staying in their lane. The county attorney has a lane.”
A few hours after ABC15’s 2021 interview, the city announced that the outside investigation would expand to include the gang charges.
The Phoenix City Council approved Zuercher's rehiring on a narrow 5-4 vote on September 17.
After the vote, ABC15 asked him if his version of events was misleading.
“I disagree, Zuercher said “I got the investigation done for the challenge coin. And I got the investigation done for the gang charges… I think the end result is the investigation was done. You can take credit if you want too.”
An ABC15 reporter responded by telling Zuercher he only wanted to make sure the record was clear.
“Was there an investigation done? Yes,” Zuercher said. “Did we follow up on it? Yes.”
Contact ABC15 Chief Investigator Dave Biscobing at Dave@ABC15.com.
