In 1989, the 19-year-old future Secretary of State led ASU cops on an alcohol-fueled chase through campus
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The Arizona State University Police Department report from July 1989 reads like a scene from National Lampoon’s Animal House.
It hardly computes that the report concerns a young Adrian Fontes, Arizona’s Secretary of State, who is beloved by Democrats and sometimes embarrassingly venerated by members of the Fourth Estate.
But instead of “Bluto” or “D-Day” leading campus cops on an alcohol-inspired motorcycle chase through ASU, the bad-boy offender described by arresting officers was none other than the 19-year-old Fontes, who is currently running for reelection as an incumbent against Republican state Representative Alexander Kolodin.
According to cop and court records, campus officers gave chase for 1.7 miles until a snockered Fontes tumbled off his red 80cc Honda motorcycle. He was arrested, hit with two felonies and later pled guilty to misdemeanor resisting arrest, though the outcome could have been far worse.
Contacted for this story, Fontes acknowledged the incident, admitting that at the time he was young, dumb and highly irresponsible.
“I am 56 now and sometimes I think back on that 19-year-old kid and I want to grab him by the scruff of the neck and shake him around a bit,” he said, crediting a stint in the Marine Corps with kicking his ass and setting him straight.
“I was a kid from Nogales going to college and I made some teenage decisions that I look back on and I’m glad I’ve recovered from,” he added. “I benefited a great deal from the discipline that the Marine Corps has given me and sort of the way of looking at the world that law school later helped me with. So, it’s just sometimes growing up you make mistakes, but the notion is that you grow up and you don’t make those mistakes again.”
Fontes is currently in the the lead in his down-ballot race according to one poll, with Kolodin, a member of the Arizona Freedom Caucus, beset by accusations that he is an “election denier”.
The MAGA Republican has also endured recently-released footage of a 2020 traffic stop, with Kolodin in cuffs and cops insinuating that before being pulled over, he tossed a can of “Smirnoff Spiked Sparkling Rosé” out the window.
Kolodin, who reportedly was ticketed for littering and was not a member of the legislature at the time, said it was ice he threw out the window, not a can of spiked wine. He has also claimed that he’s no election denier, recently conceding that “Biden won” in 2020, despite his involvement in the “kraken lawsuit” attempting to overthrow the election.
But at least when it comes to alcohol consumption, Fontes’ teenage years make Representative Kolodin look like a piker.
As police and court files attest, Fontes, a student at the university at the time, “got drunk” and decided to tear through a busy ASU campus around 11:30 p.m. on a Friday like Marlon Brando in The Wild One.
A fully-marked ASU police car spotted Fontes travelling northbound on ASU’s Forest Mall “at a high rate of speed” and gave pursuit. Fontes sped up, accelerating to more than 45 miles per hour, as the cop car turned on its lights and siren.
Fontes continued eastbound on Tyler Mall, forcing 10 to 15 pedestrians “to jump or dive out of the way.” Another campus cop car joined the chase as Fontes fled, running through a flashing red light and attempting to elude police by ducking behind buildings where they couldn’t follow.
Hard on his heels, one police cruiser smashed through the wooden arm of a traffic control gate, with Fontes leading law enforcement officers on a circuitous route. He eventually fell off his bike as he attempted to mount the stairs of a Student Services Building. That’s where officers nabbed him. They transported him to the ASU police station, where they treated him for minor scrapes and Mirandized him.
During questioning, a sarcastic Fontes admitted that he knew the cops were following him due to a “surprisingly loud siren.” He also saw people running for cover, but insisted that he had “honked his horn the whole time.”
Could he have caused someone bodily injury? “Yes, more than likely,” he said. Maybe even cause death?
“Kill them, yea easy,” he replied.
Fontes was subsequently booked into county jail for “unlawful flight” from a law enforcement vehicle, a class 5 felony, and “endangerment,” a class 6 felony. Authorities also hit him with a slew of civil citations for things like not having a motorcycle license and failure to provide proof of insurance.
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Fontes spent three days in the slammer, according to archived court records. The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office initially charged the Nogales native with unlawful flight, but Fontes entered into a plea agreement allowing him to plead guilty to one misdemeanor count of resisting arrest.
During an interview for his pre-sentence report, Fontes told a probation officer that “he began using marijuana when he was 15” and that before he was arrested “he drank alcohol on the weekends and experienced blackouts.”
The night of the incident he was experiencing personal problems, “got drunk” and headed out on his bike to “blow off a little steam” on campus, which he figured was the “safest place” to do so.
Fontes copped to having a substance abuse problem and said he had been attending Alcohol Anonymous meetings. A superior court judge later accepted his guilty plea, sentencing him to one year probation. After six months, the court agreed to terminate his probation because he had abided by its terms and continued attending AA meetings in an effort to “remain alcohol free.”
These days, Fontes says he no longer rides a two-wheeler, nor does he drink to excess, though he admits to the occasional glass or so of wine.
“I’m not a child anymore, so you got to do the right thing,” he said. “Plus, once you get older, you’ve got kids, your kids become teenagers, you go through all that life experience, there’s just way too much to jeopardize over something like that. I’ve certainly gone out to dinner and left my car in restaurant parking lots and caught a cab home, but that’s just like the adult thing to do.”
Fontes said he left college before graduating, joined the Marine Corps, and returned to campus five years later, graduating summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in communication in 1998. Afterwards, he attended law school and went on to work as a prosecutor in the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.
In 2016, he defeated a longtime Republican incumbent to become Maricopa County Recorder, serving one term before losing in 2020 to Republican Stephen Richer. Fontes rebounded in 2022, handily defeating Trump-loyalist Mark Finchem to become Secretary of State.
Unlike Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs, Fontes was unafraid to debate his Republican rival during a recent appearance on Arizona Horizon. Fontes made a point of touting what he called his “track record of integrity and honor,” citing his opposition to the Trump White House and his defense of mail-in-voting.
The former Marine gave no quarter in a spirited give-and-take with Kolodin, pointing to Kolodin’s discipline by the State Bar of Arizona, in which Kolodin agreed to sanctions including 18 months of probation, and accusing the Republican of being “flat out guilty of lying” when it came to claims of election fraud.
On Fontes’ campaign Facebook site, Fontes posted a news clip about Kolodin’s sparkling rosé incident, saying “this further shows this man does not have the judgment to be Secretary of State.”
But what does his madcap, potentially life threatening motorcycle run in 1989 say about his judgement and integrity today?
“The 19-year-old helped the 56-year-old become the man that he is now,” he replied. “I mean, nobody’s perfect, and there’s lessons that I’ve learned all my life. Some of them you learn when you’re a little kid in elementary school, some of them you learn in high school and college. Some of them you learn as a professional. The question of judgment, however, I think is really important by the time you get to when you’re making decisions on behalf of others and your decisions are impacting others.”
He contrasted that night of inebriation 37 years ago with the adult Kolodin’s decision to “file lawsuits with no factual basis” as an attorney.
“After he was done with college and done with law school and had practiced law, did he learn any lessons?” he asked.
Fontes also referenced Kolodin’s “shenanigans” in 2020 with the vodka-laced wine spritzer, observing that Kolodin was “a grown adult” at the time who was “already practicing law.”
“It’s apples and oranges,” Fontes said.
Whether or not the voters see it that way is another matter. Will they decide Fontes’ police chase was the product of a wayward youth or evidence of a more serious character flaw?
One thing is for certain: Back in 1989, despite his run-in with campus bulls, he already had his eye on elected office. In the presentence report, his probation officer noted of his charge’s plans for the future that Fontes expressed “hopes of entering politics.”
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