A white Arizona sheriff’s deputy is under investigation and has been placed on administrative leave for pulling over a black driver because he had an air freshener hanging from his rearview mirror. The deputy, named Eli Max, made the driver get out of the car and began interrogating him for a half an hour about drugs and weapons. Deputy Max asked the driver where he was going. Deputy Max also accused the driver more than once of being “nervous” and asked to search the car since nervousness was a sign of “deception.” He also gave the driver a sobriety test. Fortunately, the driver recorded the encounter.
When the news department of ABC15, an Arizona TV station, asked La Paz County Sheriff’s Office for a comment, the sheriff’s office replied:
“Yes, we obviously are looking into the complaint; we are taking this matter very seriously. Deputy Max has already been placed on administrative leave and our detectives are in the process of investigating the complaint. If we determine that the Deputy was at fault, we will look into the training methods to determine if this was a training issue or possibly an officer making up his own methods. When the investigation is complete, I plan on providing a press release that will detail our findings.”
