PHOENIX — After spending 20 years on the “Brady” list, a top Phoenix police commander got her name removed from the registry that tracks officers with histories of dishonesty, criminal actions, or other integrity concerns.
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office approved a request to be taken off the list from Commander Julie Egea in October.
It’s a decision that concerns defense and civil rights attorneys.
“They’re playing games with Brady. They’re playing games with officer misconduct,” said Ben Rundall, an attorney who successfully sued Phoenix police for hiding officer wrongdoing and further exposed high-level ignorance about the department’s constitutional obligations. “I think this is important. This is easy stuff. If there’s officer misconduct, you have to turn that over… Why don’t these agencies, after everything that’s happened, understand it?”
The “Brady” list gets its name from a 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case, Brady v. Maryland, which ruled that police and prosecutors cannot withhold exculpatory evidence, which often includes past cases of dishonesty and other misconduct by officers.
That evidence is commonly known as “Brady” material.
Egea, who’s now one of the highest-ranked women inside the Phoenix Police Department, landed on Maricopa County’s “Brady” list in 2003.
ABC15 obtained a summary of the Phoenix police internal investigation into Egea as part of the station’s Full Disclosure investigation in 2020.
According to the findings, “Officer Julie Speirs [maiden name], #6222, while attending a gang seminar on City business during the week of March 17, 2003, left the seminar two-half hours early on Monday, March 17th, and three hours early on Tuesday, March 18th, and arrived late on four days without notifying her supervisor of her abscences; and she also completed the attendance roster for husband Officer Egea, #5385, on days that he did not attend.”
When reached for comment several weeks ago, Egea sent ABC15 the following email.
“I appreciate the heads up on the article regarding the request and the actual removal of my name from the Brady List,” Egea wrote. “At this time I will respectfully decline any comments/interview reference this matter that for me is over (21) years old.”
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office also declined to comment on the decision and said any documents that articulate the decision are not public record.
MCAO did release a copy of Egea’s written appeal and a short letter confirming her removal.
“I was incredibly shocked that someone can request to be taken off the Brady list,” Rundall said. “This is a commander. So, if a commander feels emboldened to essentially sidestep Brady, sidestep due process, what does this set in terms of an example for other officers? How many officers have made this type of request?”
MCAO said it doesn’t track the number of “Brady” list appeals or how many have been approved. [In mid-December, ABC15 filed an official public records request for all past appeals and the decisions.]
Rundall says Egea’s history “absolutely goes to her integrity.”
“Let’s just say it how it is: You’re lying for another officer. That’s what this is,” Rundall said. “She not only lied about her own attendance. She lied for another officer. That’s what this is. That’s why she was put on the Brady list.”
In her appeal letter, Egea maintains she was truthful.
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“There is nothing I did in the entirety of this investigation that questions my integrity,” Egea wrote to MCAO.
She also wrote the following about the sustained allegations against her.
“I must conclude that I was placed on the Brady List for twice signing the attendance roster for my husband, who did not attend on two of the days. Upon reviewing the investigation, the reader will see that Officer Marr also signed the attendance roster for my husband; he also did it in good faith. Neither he nor I had any reason to believe my husband would not attend. He specifically told me he would attend; he was not feeling well when I left in the morning to participate, but it was my belief when I signed the attendance roster for him that he would attend. Today, people sign into training for each other. It might be because someone is running late or they are one person ahead of them in line, and they do it as a courtesy. In my 29 year career, I have never attended a training where an admonishment was provided for doing such a thing. Although this is cultural, not just in law enforcement but in many workforces, I am not inferring it is a sound practice, only that it takes place.”
In recent years, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office and Phoenix Police Department have been repeatedly criticized by judges for failing failures related to “Brady” material.
Some examples include an overturned conviction, a scathing federal ruling about the Phoenix’s former chief’s ignorance in a wrongful conviction lawsuit, and a scandal involving a homicide detective who repeatedly mishandled evidence.
Contact ABC15 Chief Investigator Dave Biscobing at Dave@ABC15.com.
