A man and a woman told police that they were pulled over by former Phoenix police Officers Antonio Felix and Luis Vasquez Jr. and were beaten and tased.
The former officers were recently fired, arrested and charged with crimes including kidnapping and assault.
At a news conference on Thursday, Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said the case says nothing about the Phoenix Police Department as a whole.
“This case is about the conduct of these individual former officers. It is not a reflection on the countless men and women who uphold their oaths and put their lives on the line everyday to keep our community safe,” she said.
A federal civil rights review of Phoenix police released two years ago said the department had a force-first culture.
The report was retracted last year by the Trump administration.
The local fallout from the incident extends to criminal cases past and present.
Mitchell said prosecutors are reviewing old and current cases involving them.
“And I want to make sure that we’ve not only disclosed this information to the defense, but we’ve evaluated the case in a new light with this information,” Mitchell said.
Felix was a Phoenix police officer for nine years. Vasquez was on the force for eight years.
