‘Cover up’ and ‘damage control’: Attorneys respond to Prescott police chief’s email about ABC15 investigation – Bill Williams

The day after an ABC15 investigation, Prescott’s police chief sent a defensive email to city leaders attempting to discredit the news report that revealed how her department arrested a man based solely on statements from a local fire chief and his family.

Chief Amy Bonney declined to be interviewed about her email.

But the man’s defense attorneys called it “damage control” and further evidence of a “cover up” while also exposing a “scary” lack of understanding of Arizona’s self-defense laws, reported Dave Biscobing, an outstanding investigator for ABC15. I worked for two television news organizations in Phoenix as I began my journalism career, and Biscobing is one of the best. He posted the emails in question online.

Bonney, who was named Arizona Chief of the Year in 2023, sent the email to the Prescott City Council and other top officials the day after ABC15’s report on the criminal case against Matt Massucci.

Photo: Central Arizona Fire and Medical Deputy Chief Dustin Parra

Back in July 2023, Central Arizona Fire and Medical Deputy Chief Dustin Parra and his family accused Massucci of randomly threatening them outside a gas station and pulling a gun.

However, grainy surveillance footage would eventually show it was Parra – upset and intoxicated after his brother’s funeral — who went after Massucci and confronted him inside his car by holding the door open.

That’s why Massucci said he pulled out his handgun from his center console in self-defense.

“I was prosecuted with extreme prejudice. No one did their due diligence. Nobody was interested in finding out the truth,” Massucci told ABC15 in an earlier interview.

In her email, Bonney defended the police investigation and said they would not release any additional information about the case.

The chief also described ABC15’s reporter as someone “well known for conducting ‘hit pieces'” and claimed the article about the “nearly two year old case” was “riddled with inaccurate information, which has created some buzz.”

Bonney added, “Soon, another headline will take its place.”

His defense attorneys, Joey Hamby and Andy Marcantel, slammed the email and said it selectively cited Arizona’s self-defense laws.

“That’s not the way that they should be handling this type of a story,” Marcantel said. “They should be trying to make it right, rather than hoping that time will create a new controversy to allow them to not have to address this.”

The email highlights one statute about self-defense, stating it’s “not justified in response to verbal provocation alone.” But the attorneys say Bonney omitted other crucial statutes that would have applied to Massucci’s situation.

“ARS 13-418, which protects somebody who’s in an occupied vehicle. And ARS 13-419 which creates a presumption of reasonableness if somebody’s trying to enter your vehicle,” Marcantel said. “You’re allowed, under Arizona law, to use deadly force in order to stop that intrusion. None of those statutes were discussed in this email.”

“If the chief doesn’t know that, frankly, that’s scary,” he said.

The attorneys also disputed Bonney’s characterization of the case as two years old, noting the charges were just dismissed this summer.

The chief’s email to city leaders denies any allegations of preferential treatment to Parra because he’s not a family member of the detective and doesn’t share a financial relationship with him.

Evidence shows Parra personally calling Detective John Hanna minutes after the incident despite later claims that he was too intoxicated and upset to be interviewed that night. Hanna later defended the department. Detective Hanna was the primary investigator on another case of interest to locals, the financial fraud case involving Charlie Arnold, where Hanna was very involved in the splashy, hyped-up news release about Arnold. That case remains pending in the Yavapai County Superior Court system.

As for the fire department drama, attorney Joey Hamby said, “Clearly there’s a relationship because somehow the (deputy fire) chief has the personal cell number for a detective who ends up being assigned as the lead detective on the case,” according to ABC 15.

The defense attorneys said the Parra family made multiple false statements to police. The family claimed Massucci walked around their vehicle, threatening them, and had a gun in his waistband. Store video showed Massucci had no gun on him and went straight to his car.

Hamby and Marcantel also criticized the closing line in the chief’s email.

It stated, “Mr. Massucci has the right to remain silent but would have been well served to explain his side of the events when he was given the opportunity.”

“He is arrested at gunpoint, with many officers pointing guns at him,” Hamby said. “He’s taken into custody, and then a detective comes in to interrogate him, and he says, you know what, I’d rather have my attorney present and not talk with you guys… I think Matthew did exactly the right thing.”

Marcantel added, “They are trained to interrogate you. And not only are they allowed to lie to you, they are trained to lie to you, to try to get you to incriminate yourself,” Marcantel said.

“This little closing line on the email here seems to be an attempt at trying to encourage the public to waive their right to remain silent. Don’t do that,” he said.