- By Kevin Reagan Staff Writer, Pinal Central
- Dec 4, 2018 Updated Dec 5, 2018
ANGEL INITIATIVE DRUG PROGRAM EXPANDS TO PINAL COUNTY
FLORENCE — Pinal County residents experiencing drug addiction will be able to seek help from law enforcement without the fear of getting arrested.
Local authorities have recently announced a new partnership with the Governor’s Office to expand its Angel Initiative program to Pinal County.
The Pinal County Sheriff’s Office will be the first county-wide sheriff’s agency in Arizona to implement the program, which was introduced in Phoenix and Scottsdale.
Sheriff Mark Lamb said the intention is to allow residents to walk into a PCSO substation, hand over any drugs in their possession and ask for help without facing legal consequences.
The individual will be referred to a special coordinator provided by the state who will guide the person to local treatment services. Deputies may also have the ability to refer individuals they encounter during traffic stops or regular calls for service, the sheriff added.
“We want people to get help,” Lamb said. “Not everybody that uses drugs is a criminal.”
PCSO will be the only local agency participating in the Angel Initiative so individuals must make contact with a PCSO officer to get referred.
Pinal County Attorney Kent Volkmer said over 50 percent of the felony cases his office prosecutes each year involve drug offenses. This is a crisis the county is dealing with now, he said, and officials can’t do much aside from putting someone in prison or on probation.
“We really don’t do anything to curb the underlying issue, which is the addiction itself,” Volkmer said.
The Governor’s Office describes the Angel Initiative as “a police-assisted addiction recovery program” that’s meant to reduce the “shame and stigma” associated with drug addiction. When it started in Maricopa County, the program barred individuals who were fugitives of justice or had more than three prior drug-related arrests.
Massachusetts is credited with starting this concept of “help rather than handcuffs.” After the Gloucester Police Department initiated an Angel program a few years ago, hundreds of other police departments across the country quickly followed, according to the Boston Globe.
County officials say the Angel Initiative won’t operate like a diversion program, which allows defendants to erase criminal charges from their record after completing certain requirements like drug treatment or community service. The county won’t be setting requirements for program participants to complete or track progress of the participants.
Volkmer and Lamb said they hope the program will be replicated in other counties so that it eventually becomes a statewide initiative.
“We’re always looking for ways to be proactive,” the sheriff said. “... we’re constantly looking at ways that we can try to fix the problem before it becomes a problem.”
The federal AmeriCorps program is currently accepting applications for the program coordinator who will be working in Pinal County. Information about the position can be found at americacorps.gov.Published on PinalCentral.com, by Kevin Reagan, on 7/17/17. To see article, go to - http://www.pinalcentral.com/coolidge_examiner/news/second-mistrial-in-coolidge-walmart-robbery-case/article_6a17f91e-b87f-58e9-a7ba-e1b35083e4ca.html
SECOND MISTRIAL IN COOLIDGE WALMART ROBBERY CASE
By Kevin Reagan, Staff Writer
FLORENCE — Another mistrial was declared for a defendant accused of conspiring with others to steal more than $100,000 from a Walmart in Coolidge.
A jury failed to reach a verdict for charges filed against Nathaniel Hearn, one of four suspects arrested in 2012 for robbing the store at gunpoint.
Two of the suspects have already been convicted and prosecutors attempted again to convict Hearn after his first trial ended with a hung jury two years ago.
The jurors in Hearn’s second trial began deliberating Friday afternoon and returned to Judge Joseph Georgini’s courtroom without a unanimous verdict on Monday.
In his closing arguments, Deputy County Attorney Patrick Johnson tried emphasizing Hearn’s guilt by displaying phone logs of the four suspects.
Johnson highlighted how Hearn was the only one calling and talking to Aaron Sharpe, the man who went inside the Walmart with a gun and stole more than $100,000 from a clerk.
Sharpe was convicted of armed robbery in 2015 and sentenced to 21 years in prison.
Johnson reminded the jury of evidence showing Sharpe calling Hearn the morning of the robbery shortly before 7 a.m., the time when employees switch shifts at the store. This didn’t factor into their plan, the prosecutor argued, so they were trying to keep things from falling apart.
James Soslowsky, the defendant’s attorney, stressed the lack of physical evidence tied to his client. He said there was no video surveillance footage or DNA evidence that pinpointed Hearn to the scene.
The defense further argued that there was no evidence presented to verify Hearn was the person actually talking on his phone for the call reported during the robbery. According to the phone logs, Soslowsky said there would have been an instance during the robbery when Sharpe and Hearn would be driving away in the same car but still talking to each other on the phone.
This was a case with more questions than answers, Soslowsky argued during closing arguments.
Johnson said there was no possibility Hearn was not involved in the robbery, telling the jury there was evidence indicating Hearn was at Sharpe’s house after the crime, reportedly counting the money.
By Friday afternoon, the jury indicated it wasn’t reaching a consensus in notes to the court. Georgini chose to dismiss jurors for the weekend, wanting them to continue deliberating on Monday.
Jurors were able to quickly reach a verdict last month for Efrain Hernandez, one of Hearn’s co-defendants. Hernandez’s first trial ended in a mistrial but prosecutors managed to convict him the second time for conspiracy to commit robbery, kidnapping and aggravated assault with a weapon.
According to previous media reports, Efrain was a former employee of a Walmart in San Tan Valley before being temporarily assigned to the Coolidge store.
Eric Hernandez, the fourth defendant, is scheduled to stand trial later this year. The court will reconvene July 25 to set a new trial date for Hearn.
