By Howard Fischer
Mail | X: @azcapmedia

PHOENIX - Defeated state Sen. Justine Wadsack is making a federal case out of being stopped for criminal speeding last year by Tucson police, accusing multiple officers and city officials of violating her civil rights by stopping her in the first place and then later giving her a citation.

The lawsuit filed in federal court claims all of that was part of a conspiracy to silence her politically. It also alleges the whole incident, with Wadsack being stopped near the University of Arizona campus, was designed to "target her for prosecution on trumped up and phony charges, chill Ms. Wadsack's political free speech, and knowingly and wrongfully interfere with her right to hold public office and pursue her chosen occupations.''

And Dennis Wilenchik, her attorney, said the negative publicity surrounding all of this amounted to a $9 million gift in free media for Vince Leach, who after Wadsack was stopped and later cited, defeated her in the Republican primary last August in LD 17, which covers portions of eastern and northern Pima County into Pinal County. Leach then went on to win the general election.

But in her lawsuit, Wadsack claims she can show more than $8 million in damages directly caused by the city and its officers "not inclusive of emotional distress, psychic trauma and other general damages incurred.''

A police spokesman said Sunday the agency could not comment on litigation. There was no immediate response from the city attorney's office.

All this stems from an incident a year ago when she was pulled over on East Speedway after officer Ryder Schrage pulled her over, saying he had caught her on radar going 71 mph in a 35 mph zone. Wadsack said she was "racing to get home'' because the battery in her all-electric Tesla was about to run out of a charge.

"I was not doing 70,'' she is heard telling the officer who recorded the interaction on his body cameras.

"Yes, you were,'' he responded. "I was behind you. I had my radar on.''

Wadsack also identified herself as a state lawmaker.

A few minutes later, the audio on the officer's body camera goes mute, presumably when he was checking with superiors.

She was not ticketed immediately based on a provision in the Arizona Constitution saying that legislators "shall be privileged from arrests in all cases except treason, felony and breach of the peace'' starting from 15 days ahead of the legislative session and running until lawmakers adjourn for the year.

Wadsack eventually was cited for criminal speeding - it is a misdemeanor to drive more than 20 miles over the limit in a business or residential district - as well as failure to provide proof of insurance. The case was dismissed in January after she completed a defensive driving course and proved she had the legally required coverage.

In her new lawsuit, Wilenchik contends it's irrelevant even if Wadsack were speeding, a point he does not concede.

"She should never have been stopped,'' he wrote, presumably because of the legislative identification placard attached to her license plate. And Wilenchik said Wadsack "never believed she would be ticketed after the legislative session ended.''

And then, he said, police never provided any evidence she was speeding, whether in the form of body camera footage or radar.

All that goes to the heart of the claim that Wadsack was "singled out'' in being stopped and then charged with a misdemeanor after the session ended.

"It is believe that this was all part of a plan of members of the Tucson Police Department to act in concert with not yet known city officials to ruin plaintiff's good reputation because she was introducing legislation these members of TPD felt were adverse to their interests,'' Wilenchik wrote.

All that, he said, comes because she was investigating Tucson police, was an "outspoken critic'' of city government, was a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, and "because she is a woman and her primary opponent was a man who TPD officials felt could be better controlled than plaintiff.''

As to the city's problems with her, Wilenchik said they were upset because she was pushing two bills. One would have scrapped voting centers - where anyone can cast a ballot - and instead returned to when people could vote only at their local precincts. The other sought a constitutional amendment to wipe out the ability of cities like Tucson to have home rule through their own charters.

Neither measure was approved.

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