All I wanted to do was go to the bank and deposit several of my pay checks which had been sitting around for a while. I didn’t know I would be falsely arrested, jailed overnight, fired from my job, and almost arrested again the next morning after I got out of jail.

Unknown to me just before I left Motorola and went across the street to Smitty’s to deposit my checks into my bank account at Western Savings some guy who was in the parking lot of Smitty’s had a bank bag stolen from his truck.

Nor did I know that as I walked past him that he thought I was the person who stole it.

He approached me and demanded the envelope which I was carrying which had all the paychecks which I was going to deposit. I though he was going to rob me. I refused and hurried into Smitty’s to get away from the creep.

He followed me into Smitty’s and I thought why is this crook following me. I looked around for an employee to complain to and have call the cops. I didn’t find one. Eventually the guy stopped acting weird so he didn’t bother me any more and I deposited my money into the bank and went back to work at Motorola.

At Motorola I first went to my office which is at an outside office complex on Hayden Road, and then I went into the main GED factory building and used a computer room I often use to write and test my computer programs.

I thought it was odd when I got a call from the security desk asking me to come to the front entrance. I am a contractor, and contractors are usually the first people to be fired when radical events happen at businesses. So I left the computer room and started to walk to the front entrance.

As I was walking down the hall I saw a couple of Scottsdale cops and I though what is going on? Why are Scottsdale cops in the Motorola plant. In fact I was terrified because I have had my civil rights violated a number of times by crooked cops. But still I continued to walk to the front entrance because I didn’t think they had anything to do with me.

As I got to the cops they arrested me and handcuffed me. It was so long ago I remember nothing about it. They did lock me up in a police car in front of Motorola for about an hour so everybody in the world could walk by me and see me handcuffed sitting in the back of a cop car looking like a criminal. I guess they did that on purpose.

Later they drove me over to the office complex where I had my office and tried to force me to tell them where my car was. I suspect they wanted to search it. No way was I going to give them permission to search my car and trash it. I suspect they also searched my desk in my office.

At that point in my life I learned why the police often get people to confess to crimes they did not commit. I told them that I didn’t steal anything from the guy. I am also sure that they knew I did not steal anything from the guy because I did not have the guys stuff on me, nor was it in my desk, nor was it in the computer room I was working in before I was arrested.

The cops lied to me and told me “If you just admit stealing the stuff, we will let you go and forget everything that happened. But if you continue to deny stealing the stuff we are going to arrest you” I though that was really insane. I knew that even if I did steal the guys stuff, which I didn’t and I admitted it they would jail me. But I figured a stupid person, or mentally retarded person, or a really trusting person who just wanted to help out the police might admit to doing the crime just to have the cops release them, as the cops promised. And of course a trusting person who didn’t commit the crime, would be shocked when the cops instead of releasing him after the confession, jailed him, and used it as evidence against him.

Despite not having a shred of evidence or probable cause that I committed a crime the cops eventually took me to the Scottsdale jail which is up on Via Ventura in north Scottsdale and jailed me over night.

I was released the next morning. To show how pathetic the case the Scottsdale Police had against me I was not even given a court hearing. I wasn’t given a court hearing because the police didn’t have any evidence to link me to the crime. I was just kicked out of the jail by a mean spirited guard. The asshole, did order me to make my bed with a threat that I didn’t I would be charged with vandalizing the jail.

With 20/20 after sight the false arrest and false imprisonment was just an attempt by the Scottsdale Police to get me to confess to a crime I did not do.

While I was jailed I was not given the opportunity to call anyone. I thought the police are required to let you make a call. They didn’t offer to let make a call. Of course I am a hermit and if I had been given the opportunity to make a call I would have told them I didn’t have anyone to call.

But I was surprised that while I was jailed I did get one call. With 20/20 hindsight this phone call was also and attempt to get me to confess to a crime which I didn’t do. The Scottsdale cops got Joe a salesman from Cara, the contracting company to call me. I think Rick Wahl was also present and perhaps Gus Figueroa were present when the call was made, in addition to the Scottsdale Police who where there to help Joe get me to confess.

I ask Joe how on earth he managed to call me. I know the police try to make it as difficult as possible on people they arrest so I was very surprised that Joe called me. Joe lied and told me that he told the cops that he was my lawyer. That didn’t sound like a very good answer. And 20/20 hindsight tells me it was a lie. Joe called to help the Scottsdale Police get me to confess to a crime I didn’t commit.

Joe quickly got into to trying to get me to confess by asking me if I would take a plea bargain that the cops were willing to offer me if I confessed.

I told Joe that was 100 percent total bullshit. I was not going to confess to a crime I did not commit to get a stinking plea bargain. Then I got into an angry rampage and told Joe exactly what happened. How some dumb police thugs falsely arrested after I tried to make a bank deposit. I was very angry and insulted the incompetent police thugs who had falsely arrested me.

I later on found out after the fact that my bosses at Motorola were listening to the call and at that point they realized that the police f*cked up badly and falsely arrested me.

Joe acting like the usual jerk he is also realized that the cops falsely arrested me. But Joe accused me of damaging the image of his company Cara. I tried to explain to Joe that if it had been possible for me to prevent the jackbooted Scottsdale Police thugs from falsely arresting me, and damaging the image of Cara I would have done so, but it is pretty hard to prevent armed thugs with guns from falsely arresting you.

Despite the fact that I have worked for Cara longer then almost any other contract employee they have, and the fact that I am the only engineer that Motorola has ask to come back by my name Joe is annoyed by the fact that I refused to wear a suit and show up to work in levis and a t-shirt. Joe is also annoyed by the fact that I am an atheist and when I die his Italian Catholic god is goning to send me to hell. But f*ck Joe, other then that he is an OK guy.

After I was released I told the jailed I wanted to make a call and they let me. I called Cara Joe and he told me to meet him at the Smitty’s where I was accused of committing the crime.

Being a cheap bastard I hitched hiked back to South Scottsdale from the yuppie jail on Via Ventura and met Joe at Smitty’s where he told me that Motorola had fired me because of the false arrest by the incompetent, crooked Scottsdale Police. That wasn’t any problem because a week later I would be rehired after Motorola called the Scottsdale Police and were told that they were not going to charge me with any crimes.

More excitement was to follow in the morning. My sister’s husband’s brother works as a bank teller at the Western Savings in the Smitty’s where the incident happened. I sat down at the bank window and had a long discussion with him about how the corrupt, incompetent Scottsdale Police had jailed me over night with out any evidence and caused me to be fired from my job at Motorola.

Little did I know, but while I was talking with one of my in laws at the bank the wife of the guy who had yesterday accused me of stealing his stuff called the cops and told them I was robbing the Western Savings bank.

A Scottsdale cop then came into the bank and he was confused as hell. He was told that I am robbing the bank but I am just sitting there talking to a teller and it looks like we are good friends. He really didn’t know what to say so he said “Is anybody being robbed here?”

He quickly got a rash of shit from me. I told him “No I am telling my friend what a bunch of morons you Scottsdale police are and how you falsely arrested yesterday, falsely jailed me over night and got me fired from my job.”

He pretty quickly figured out that I was not robbing the bank, and that I don’t like jackbooted police thugs.

I lost over a $1,000 in lost wages because of the false arrest by the Scottsdale police. I was fired from my job for about a week. But I was rehired the next week when the Scottsdale cop said they were not going to charge me with any crimes.

Several months after my false arrest they found the money bag that was stolen. I was again arrested by the Scottsdale cops. They didn’t handcuff me or anything. But they did force me to drive my car to the Scottsdale jail where they took my fingerprints to see if they matched the prints on the stolen bag.

I was terrified and though the police might frame me and say my prints. But after a week or so they said the prints did not match and that is the last I ever heard from the crooked police from the City of Scottsdale that falsely arrested me.

The false arrest did tarnish my reputation for life at Motorola. Rumors get around and lies are spread quickly. One rumor I heard was the I robbed the First Interstate Bank across the street from Motorola, and the cops chased me into Motorola where they arrested me with several money bags.

Another rumor I heard is that I was arrested for stealing something and I got released on some technicality. I heard that as I was eating lunch in the cafeteria.

Any of course there are all the jokes that people make about it. The standard Motorola joke was that if I was ever more then 10 minutes late people were supposed to call the Scottsdale Police station at Via Ventura to see if I had been falsely arrested again. At least some people at Motorola know the Scottsdale police are corrupt, incompetent, morons.

20 years later screwed by false arrest of Scottsdale Police