Accused Prescott and Prescott Valley businessman Charlie Arnold had his day in court, and he won

Photo: Charlie Arnold (Facebook)

In what became a sensationalized group of 14 felony charges, leading to Mr. Arnold’s reputation possibly being smeared, ended when the case fizzled out for no apparent reason.

This reporter joined by video hookup to observe the Camp Verde courtroom proceedings managed by Judge Henry Whitmer. But when the judge called for all the participants to identify themselves, conspicuously absent was the Coconino County Attorney’s office. And the only one present from Yavapai County was Deputy County Attorney Mike Morrison who had been busy working four previous afternoon cases on methamphetamine sale and possession issues. He sat silent.

There was always a question as to whether Coconino County was involved or not and one of the many irregularities that this reporter had to deal with was contradictory information from police and clerks in the courthouse, some saying it was only a Yavapai County case and others saying “the Coconino County attorney will weigh in.”

No reason has been given as to why Coconino County was involved.

When Charlie Arnold’s attorney identified himself as Andrew Pacheco, the judge asked him if his office reached out to Coconino County and Pacheco replied, “We thought they were sending someone to cover this your honor. We had difficulty getting them to acknowledge that they had the case and we asked that they have a supervisor be sent but that has not yet occurred.”

The judge said, “This is early disposition court. Are you requesting a preliminary hearing or do you want to reset this?” Pacheco answered, “We would like to reset; we do not request a preliminary hearing, we did fill out a waiver.” When the judge recognized no one was available from Coconino County he turned to seek a comment or representative from Yavapai County to no avail. The judge called a recess and left the courtroom, presumably bound for his chambers where he could make a call to Coconino County.

The judge was gone from the courtroom for several minutes and when he returned there was a representative from the Coconino County District Attorney’s office – Chief Deputy Michael Tunink – on the telephone speaker. So, the judge asked Chief Deputy Tunink if he was prepared to proceed with felony charges against Mr. Arnold and Tunink said the decision was made that “we are not filing felony complaints at this time,” so the judge dismissed the case.

Charlie Arnold’s attorney did not say much more either. If it is the attorney Andrew Pacheco we think he is, he’s the former prosecutor with the Maricopa County Attorney’s office and former Chief of the Criminal Division of the Arizona Attorney General’s office, and is now with Ryan, Rapp, Underwood and Pacheco PLC, in Phoenix

This reporter, and Prescott eNews’ publisher, have never seen a case with this many irregularities, some of which were reported in part one of this series of reports on the matter.

It is important to note that a lengthy investigation by Prescott Police resulted in a tantalizing police report and press release, and an arrest eight days ago, and a possible smearing of a man’s name, yet quickly lead to today’s hearing.

Enews always believes in a presumption of innocence. But this case, that was full of irregularities, was the talk of the town, front page news for one week, and yet dismissed without explanation.

Was Charlie’s story wronged by a system full of oddities and court staff misinformation, or was he a shrewd and learned litigant? Will he get his good name back? Will the VFW get any money back? Will Charlie be back on radio or at the helm of the Wheelhouse athletic center? Enews believes the scope of the irregularities are too egregious to ignore. And we pledge to do a full investigation as more information becomes available.