‘Failure to Discipline’: Phoenix Cops Who Brutally Arrested Deaf Black Man Over False Claims Get Suspensions Overturned—Board Won’t Explain Why
Many people already viewed the 24‑hour unpaid suspensions that Phoenix cops received in 2024 — after they falsely arrested an innocent Black man while responding to a call about a belligerent white man inside a convenience store — as a slap on the wrist.
That perception was especially strong because the Black man, Tyron McAlpin, who is deaf and has cerebral palsy, spent 24 days in jail after he could not afford the $6,500 bond.
But the city’s Civil Service Board decided even that punishment was too harsh. Earlier this year, the five-member board quietly overturned the suspensions of officers Kyle Sue and Benjamin Harris without offering any explanation.
A Silence That Speaks
Last month, ABC15 investigative reporter Dave Biscobing, who broke the initial story, confronted the Civil Service Board during a public meeting and demanded to know why it reversed the discipline.
“Given this board’s decision to rescind the suspensions against the two officers, I’m really hoping that I could speak to any of you who would be willing to discuss your decisions to understand better what happened,” Biscobing told the board as he stood at the podium during a June 11 meeting.
“Why suspension was something you felt was not warranted in this case. I know the community still has a lot of questions about how all this played out. And given the confidential nature of how these decisions are reached, I’m hoping you’ll contact me and we can have a discussion about that.”
Biscobing ended his address by giving board members his email address, dave@abc15.com.
Almost two months later, the board still has not contacted him to explain its decision. Its silence speaks louder than any contrived response.
(@abc15arizona)Describing Black Man as ‘Suspect’
The incident took place on August 19, 2024, after McAlpin entered a Circle K to buy a drink for his girlfriend.
Inside the store, the white man, Derek Stevens, lay on the floor, refused to leave, and created a disturbance, prompting the clerk to call police.
When officers arrived, they spoke to Stevens. He told them McAlpin had stolen his phone.
Despite the clerk describing the culprit as white, officers Sue and Harris drove up to McAlpin as he walked away from the store and pounced on him.
Body camera videos show the cops punching, kicking and tasering him without bothering to question him, even though they had just questioned Stevens.
In their arrest report, police labeled McAlpin the “suspect” and Stevens the “victim,” even though surveillance video shows McAlpin trying to help the Circle K clerk get Stevens to leave the store.
Because McAlpin could not afford bond, he spent more than three weeks in jail on fabricated charges of felony aggravated assault on a police officer, resisting arrest and stealing Stevens’ phone — charges police filed without any evidence he had done that.
The felony charges were still pending when Biscobing broke the story on Oct. 10, 2024, which quickly became national news.
That unwanted attention apparently pushed the Maricopa County District Attorney’s Office to dismiss the felony charges seven days later. Prosecutors had already dismissed the misdemeanor theft charge the prior month.
After a lengthy internal affairs investigation, the department handed officers Sue and Harris 24-hour unpaid suspensions in May 2025 — the equivalent of three eight-hour shifts.
Instead of serving the suspensions, the officers appealed to the city’s Civil Service Board. Earlier this year, the board overturned both suspensions without explanation.
Watch the video below.
‘Discriminating Against Black Americans When Enforcing the Law’
The Phoenix Civil Service Board is a five‑member city panel the city council appoints to decide appeals of disciplinary actions against city employees, including cops. Its decisions are final and binding.
The board overturned Sue’s suspension during its Feb. 12 meeting and reversed Harris’ suspension on May 14.
Biscobing broke the story about the overturned suspensions on May 18, then spent the next few weeks pressing the board to explain its decision, only to be ignored.
He later appeared at the June 11 board meeting to address the board publicly, but members still refused to answer his questions or respond to his follow-up requests for information in the weeks that followed.
The five board members are Richard Arroyo, Robbin Coulon, Donna McHenry, Cris Meyer, and Dana Naimark. Coulon, an attorney, was the only member to vote against the reversals at both meetings, but she has not publicly shared her reasoning with local media.
The only public record that offers any explanation consists of two three‑page documents on each officer that Biscobing obtained through a public records request.
Meanwhile, McAlpin has a pending lawsuit against the city accusing the cops of violating his Fourth and 14th Amendment rights.
“In the last 10 years, the City has repeatedly avoided disciplining officers who used force, including deadly force, in ways that violated City policies and training,” the claim states.
“This failure to discipline or retrain officers is so widespread that it amounts to an unwritten policy that has created a culture of impunity among the City’s officers.”
“The City has a pattern and practice of discriminating against Black Americans when enforcing the law. The City has a pattern and practice of ignoring the rights of the disabled when enforcing the law,” the attorneys explain.