Peoria council points to sex offender at vice mayor's house as grounds for resignation
Peoria police have released a report involving a sex offender that Mayor Jason Beck and the City Council point to as justification for requesting Vice Mayor Denette Dunn's resignation.
The mayor said Dunn breached public trust and should be held accountable.
He and Councilmembers Jennifer Crawford, Michael Finn, Jon Edwards, Bill Patena and Brad Shafer say the document, released Wednesday, depicts behavior that "does not uphold the standards of conduct we expect from our public servants."
Her resignation, they wrote, "will help ensure the continued integrity of our local government and protect the reputation of our city."
Dunn has maintained that she did nothing wrong and that the situation is politically motivated by Beck and stems from a disagreement over LGBT issues and city jurisdiction.
Beck and the City Council attempted to convene a closed-door meeting Aug. 24 to discuss Dunn's "employment" and potential disciplining or resignation. They backtracked after Dunn demanded the meeting be held publicly and after her attorney, Tim LaSota, said the meeting violated Arizona's Open Meeting Law.
The council demanded Dunn’s resignation in a letter Monday.
It was an unusual step for a local government body. Attempts to remove elected leaders are rare and usually stem from voter-led recall efforts.
Ousting Dunn, who was first elected to the City Council in 2019, effectively would undo the will of southern Peoria Pine District voters who re-elected her to a four-year term in November 2022.
The council does not have legal authority to remove one of its elected members, according to Diane Arthur, city spokesperson.
For Dunn to leave public office, she would have to do so voluntarily.
The police report does not outline wrongdoing by Dunn but rather details an investigation into a man named Derek Lawson, who stayed the night at Dunn's house intermittently throughout the past year.
Lawson, who is in his 60s, is a sex offender registered in Maricopa County who was convicted in 1984 in California of forcible rape, pimping and furnishing PCP to a minor, the report says. He served 10 years in prison and was ordered to register as a sex offender for life.
Peoria police allege in the report that because Lawson stayed in Dunn's house throughout the past 12 months, he was supposed to register Dunn's address as either a primary or secondary residence. Failing to do so was a violation of the law and meant the surrounding public was not notified of his presence. Arizona law defines secondary residence as a location someone stays at for at least three days within a 30-day period.
As evidence, police pointed to the fact that Lawson's driver's license and car registration listed Dunn's address. According to the report, Lawson told police he had probably stayed 20 to 30 days the past year. That averages to between 1.6 and 2.5 days a month, which would be beneath the secondary residence requirement. But it's unclear when exactly and how frequently he stayed.
Regardless, police say they were informed he was frequently at Dunn's home. They also say his sex offender registration as being homeless in Maricopa County was inaccurate because state law says offenders cannot register as homeless if they spend three days or more at one location in a 30-day period.
Lawson disputed the allegations, according to the police report.
He said he was a close family friend of Dunn's and that he would come over to help with errands, such as installing security cameras, but that he did not keep property there, nor did he reside there.
He admitted to listing Dunn's address on his license and car registration but told police he did so without her permission, the report says.
The Peoria police closed the investigation in late August after they confirmed Lawson had registered at an extended stay motel as his primary residence. He was not arrested.
Dunn acknowledged that Lawson had stayed at her home but maintained she had done nothing wrong.
"I've known him for 30 years, and I've never had any problems," she said. She added that she thought he was a low-level sex offender and was unaware of secondary residence requirements.
Dunn said Lawson would come over because she and her roommate, Lawson's mother, feared a neighbor who had threatened and harassed her. Dunn said it had gone on for years.
Security camera footage from Dunn's home provided to The Republic shows multiple encounters in 2020.
One clip shows the neighbor in front of the house, angrily waving his arms and shouting, "Take the camera off my roof! Is that hard to understand? Take the camera off my roof."
Another video appears to show the neighbor looking over her backyard wall, shining a flashlight into her house. Dunn's voice can be heard speaking to Peoria police on the phone. She tells the operator that Peoria PD was just out at her house because the neighbor had trespassed but he was still bothering her after they left.
"I don't want him doing this anymore," Dunn says.
Another video shows the neighbor spewing profanities as he walks past her house, and multiple others appear to show him watching Dunn as she drives into her driveway and walks to the mailbox.
An email provided to The Republic from 2020 shows Dunn emailing city leadership and Peoria Police Chief Art Miller about the neighbor.
"What I have experienced and been subjected to, has been a living hell and nightmare. I have gone to great lengths and expense to try to protect myself and have some semblance of a life," Dunn wrote. "I pray for relief and to one day be able to be safe in my own home without feeling like a prisoner, threatened, intimidated and stalked."
In May, the neighbor died by self-immolation — a point that Dunn's attorney La Sota said showed the neighbor's violent tendencies and validated Dunn's fears.
Arthur confirmed a fire and death investigation occurred May 9.
Dunn said Lawson stayed "to protect me. My life was in danger, and I was scared."
She added that she had not broken any laws and should not be held accountable for the investigation into Lawson, whom she emphasized was not arrested and whom she believes did not commit any crime by not declaring a secondary residence.
"This was four decades ago," Dunn said of Lawson's conviction in California. "I believe in people turning their lives around."
Mayor: 'We are all united in asking her to hold herself accountable'
Beck said requesting Dunn's resignation was about ensuring public trust and keeping residents safe.
"As public officials, we swear an oath to uphold the rule of law and defend the public safety of every single resident in Peoria. It is with a united front that we, the Council, request Councilmember Dunn to immediately resign for having a sex offender living in her home who was not registered at her residence," the mayor said.
He added, "The law mandates that the public and families in her community to receive this notice. Despite varying perspectives on public policy among councilmembers, we are all united in asking her to hold herself accountable for this breach of public trust."
Short of Dunn resigning, other mechanisms for office removal include a voter-led recall. Recalls require a significant number of voters to sign a petition to oust an elected official. If the threshold of signatures is met, voters get to decide in a special election whether to remove the official from office.
What to know: Who is on the Peoria City Council?
Dunn says Beck is targeting her over frustrations with LGBT issues
Dunn said she believes Beck directed Peoria police to investigate her and is using the situation with Lawson to target her politically because of clashes over local LGBT disputes.
"He's been very involved with (Peoria Unified School District) and the transgender-only bathrooms," Dunn said. "And I've told him many times that I thought that we're our own separate elected body. He's trying to interject himself in all the things in the school board. Trying to win political favor."
Beck did not address Dunn's accusations surrounding school board transgender policy controversies.
Beck has faced criticism in the past for his treatment of LGBT employees at his company, Tyr Tactical. A former employee said Beck presided over a toxic work culture where he allowed homophobia and anti-gay jokes to fester.
In a recording a former Tyr Tactical employee provided to The Republic, Beck can be heard calling a transgender employee a derogatory term and noting how "hilarious" it was that "I actually thought it was a female."
Dunn criticized Monday's letter from Beck and the council calling for higher standards as hypocritical, saying Beck has acted unprofessionally toward her.
"I didn't appreciate his higher standard being able to grab me, kiss me on the forehead and tell me he'll be praying for me in all this," she said.
Dunn said Beck also tried convincing her that former Mayor Cathy Carlat and former City Attorney Vanessa Hickman would leak information about Lawson.
But "he's the cause of the issue," Dunn said. "This was all politically motivated by Jason to hurt me and gain my seat."
Carlat said she "never knew the report existed. I've never seen it and I have no reason to 'leak it.' I am not some imaginary operative in their imaginary war games."
Hickman responded in disbelief.
"What? How would I have any involvement in that? I haven't been at the city since the end of December," she said. "I had no idea about an investigation. I have not seen a police report, and I certainly was not going to release a police report."
To reach the national 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, call or text 988. To reach the Arizona Statewide Crisis Hotline, call 844-534-4673 (HOPE) or text 4HOPE (44673).
Reporter Taylor Seely covers Phoenix for The Arizona Republic. Reach her at tseely@arizonarepublic.com or by phone / the Signal app at 480-476-6116.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Sex offender at Peoria vice mayor's house draws City Council rebuke
