Not looking good for Bundgaard

by David Safier

Senator Scott Bundgaard claimed immunity when police arrived in the midst of his altercation on the highway with his then-girlfriend Aubry Ballard. Now Phoenix police are suggesting Bundgaard should be charged with assault.

Things aren't looking good for Bundgaard. Though he claimed not to have hit Ballard,

Phoenix police reports released Thursday . . . say that each struck the other at least once and that officers at the scene believed Bundgaard had been drinking.

There's really no problem if he had a few drinks, except that he told an officer at the scene he hadn't had anything to drink that night. The problem with that is, the officer reported smelling alcohol on Bundgaard's breath. And what's more,

[Officer Robert] Rodarme asked Bundgaard to take a field sobriety test. Bundgaard replied, "No," and then said, "I'm not taking your test."

It's Bundgaard's right to refuse, of course, but as conservatives like to say, you don't have anything to be afraid of if you're telling the truth.

Ready for the coup de grâce? There was a witness.

Also in the report, a witness told officers she saw a male trying to pull somebody out of the passenger side of the vehicle.

"She said, 'He was beatin' the living crap out of whoever was in the passenger seat'," the report says.

Not looking good for Bundgaard.

UPDATE: The Senate Democrats just put out a Media Release saying they "intend to file an amended ethics complaint in consideration of the supplemental police report released today regarding Sen. Scott Bundgaard and the events of February 25, 2011."

You can read the complete media release after the jump.

March 24, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Senate Democratic members to file amended ethics complaint
 
STATE CAPITOL, Phoenix – Senate Democratic members intend to file an amended ethics complaint in consideration of the supplemental police report released today regarding Sen. Scott Bundgaard and the events of February 25, 2011. 

“We intend to file an amended ethics complaint based on the supplemental police report released today that provides additional details of the domestic violence incident involving Senator Bundgaard,” said Senate Assistant Minority Leader Leah Landrum Taylor. “I would like to have a meeting with the Chair of the Ethics committee prior to submitting a final amended complaint.”

In the supplemental report, the police officers write that Senator Bundgaard refused to take a field sobriety test, despite smelling of alcohol, demanded that he was immune from arrest because he was a state senator, and never mentioned that Ms. Ballard had tried to reach for a gun, a statement in complete contradiction to what Senator Bundgaard told members of the Republican caucus.

“This police report directly contradicts many of the statements that Senator Bundgaard has made describing the domestic violence incident,” said Landrum Taylor. “This report raises some serious ethical questions. Did he violate the law?  Did he abuse the legislative immunity from arrest?  Was he drinking and driving?  Did he lie to either the police or his Senate colleagues?  These are all questions that the Senate and the public deserve answers to.”