Arizona police board approves cop who allegedly attacked neighbor

In 2001, Chuck Trendle got into a fight with a neighbor because the neighbor was feeding pigeons. Trendle, then a Chicago cop, was accused of grabbing his neighbor by the neck and pushing him over a fence. An internal investigation sustained the allegations, and he was suspended for 20 days. He was never arrested.

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Now, after Arizona’s police certification board granted him a waiver, Trendle will be able to continue his career in the Grand Canyon State. At its June meeting on Wednesday, the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board voted to allow Trendle to be hired by the Kingman Police Department.

The board, known as AZPOST, licenses all law enforcement officers in Arizona. With its ability to suspend or revoke law enforcement licenses, it is one of the few agencies with the power to discipline police. The 12-member board includes Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry Director Ryan Thornell and representatives from multiple sheriff’s and police agencies around the state. Last year, it punished 42 former and current officers.

Trendle’s case wasn’t before the board for disciplinary purposes, though. Kingman Police Chief Rusty Cooper needed AZPOST’s sign-off to hire him despite the 25-year-old incident.

Cooper’s department had reviewed the investigative files, he said, and Trendle was honest about the incident in his application process. He went on to have a 29-year-long career with the Chicago Police Department and retired “in good standing.” He would not be a danger to the public.

“Our request is based on the totality of his career,” Cooper said. 

Trendle appeared before the board in person to argue his case. It was his first time being disciplined for anything other than minor infractions, such as accidentally missing a court date, and he hasn’t been in trouble since. He said the incident happened because he’d called animal control on his neighbor, who then ran at him from behind. He told them that the investigation, which was conducted by a civilian investigative unit in the police department rather than the department’s internal investigative unit, was mishandled. Investigators didn’t speak to important witnesses, he said, and he didn’t have union representation.

“Those are the two big determining factors,” he told the board. 

Board chairman and Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels asked Trendle about an allegation that he lied to responding officers that he did not own an air pellet rifle, which the neighbor had accused him of using against the pigeons. Video provided later by the neighbor showed him shooting the rifle in the backyard. Trendle was off-duty at the time. In response to Dannels, Trendle admitted to killing birds with a blow dart gun, but insisted that he never fired the pellet rifle.

When a board member asked Trendle why he didn’t appeal the discipline, he said he was new to the process and didn’t know that he could. He said he found out later that the department assumed officers would appeal, so it imposed harsher discipline that could later be walked back. 

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The board voted in favor of his waiver. However, two members voted no: Dannels and Mayes’ representative on the board, Chief Deputy Bill Mundell.

In 2023, two “concerned citizens” reported Amaya-Molina to the Apache County Sheriff’s office for having sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl, compliance specialist Richard Bradshaw told the board. Amaya-Molina was 26 years old at the time. Deputies located the girl and her mother, the latter of whom told them that she’d met Amaya-Molina at the police academy about a year earlier. 

Deputies discovered that Amaya-Molina had engaged in sexual contact with the teenager about 20 times. He’d told her she couldn’t tell anyone about their relationship, which ended in early 2023, because he would go to jail and lose his job. Per Bradshaw, Amaya-Molina told the girl that “if anyone asked, just tell them that she only babysits his kids and that they were only friends.”

Deputies arrested him that day. He was charged with three counts of child molestation and three counts of sexual conduct with a minor, both felonies. He was also immediately fired from the department. He is currently in jail pending trial, making the AZPOST review — which could possibly strip him of his law enforcement license — seem like something of a formality. Bradshaw said the case was only just being presented to the board despite being nearly three years old because of the ongoing criminal proceedings.

The board voted to discipline three other officers:

• Former Arizona Department of Public Safety trooper Carlos A. Bailon received a 12-month suspension for a February 2025 incident in which he kicked, tased, and knelt on the back of a man and then omitted his use of force from his report. An AZPOST expert reviewed footage of the incident, assistant attorney general Joe Dylo said, and found that the “use of force was disproportionate to the driver’s level of resistance and was therefore without justification and not objectively reasonable.” The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office declined to press any charges against Bailon.

• Former San Carlos Apache police officer Ted S. Gamble was suspended for 18 months. Gamble pled no contest to a domestic violence-related assault charge after a drunken fight with his ex-wife outside of a casino in 2025. He completed a diversion program and the court dismissed the charge. Gamble, who attended the meeting, told the board that he learned from experience and took all of the requirements of his plea deal seriously. He agreed with their discipline.

• Former Oro Valley police officer Alexander J. Smallbrook’s certification was suspended by the board for 12 months after he was caught lying to supervisors about why he was late to an off-duty assignment at a University of Arizona football game. 

The board also voted to deny certification to two aspiring officers who got in trouble while in the academy:

• Former Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office recruit Edward A.I. Gonzalez was caught lying to instructors after he was late to the academy. The board voted to deny his certification for 12 months.