After spending 20 years on the “Brady” list, a top Phoenix police commander got her name removed from the registry that tracks officers with histories of dishonesty, criminal actions, or other integrity concerns.
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office approved a request to be taken off the list from Commander Julie Egea in October.
It’s a decision that concerns defense and civil rights attorneys.
“They’re playing games with Brady. They’re playing games with officer misconduct,” said Ben Rundall, an attorney who successfully sued Phoenix police for hiding officer wrongdoing and further exposed high-level ignorance about the department’s constitutional obligations. “I think this is important. This is easy stuff. If there’s officer misconduct, you have to turn that over… Why don’t these agencies, after everything that’s happened, understand it?”
The “Brady” list gets its name from a 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case, Brady v. Maryland, which ruled that police and prosecutors cannot withhold exculpatory evidence, which often includes past cases of dishonesty and other misconduct by officers.