Case dismissed against Sallee

A number of charges against former Wickenburg police officer James Christian Sallee were recently dismissed by the Yavapai County Attorney’s Office.

Sallee was charged late last year on two counts of interference with judicial proceedings, unlawful flight from pursuing law enforcement, endangerment, tampering with a witness, and criminal speed in reference to an alleged pursuit in Prescott with the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office (YCSO).

The case was set to go to trial in two weeks when the county attorney’s office dismissed the case. Yavapai County Attorney officials would only say that the case was dismissed due to insufficient evidence.

The complaint filed by the county attorney’s office stated that on or about Nov. 8, 2008, Sallee willfully fled or attempted to elude a pursuing official law enforcement vehicle. It said he recklessly endangered motorists on Iron Springs and Williamson Valley roads with a substantial risk of imminent death using a dangerous instrument: a 2006 Dodge Charger.

The complaint said that Sallee drove a motor vehicle at a speed in excess of 85 mph and knowingly induced a witness in an official proceeding who Sallee believed might be called as a witness, to falsely testify.

The complaint also stated that Sallee knowingly disobeyed or resisted a lawful order, process or mandate of the Maricopa County Superior court regarding his 2008 theft conviction.

The probable cause statement, written by the arresting officer at the time of arrest, stated that the vehicle he was following (allegedly Sallee’s) at one point reached speeds of 120 mph and passed no less than 25 cars. The officer wrote that these vehicles all had to take evasive action to get out of the way.

The officer said that the vehicle was abandoned in a wooded area, and when they located Sallee at his Prescott Valley residence, they heard him on the phone “making an alibi.” The officer said the tale of the evening’s events were contradictory each time the story was told. Police arrested Sallee that night on 25 counts of endangerment.

Local police officials say that it is difficult to prosecute a case when an individual who has been alleged to have committed a vehicle-related crime cannot be placed in the vehicle.

This is not the first incident Sallee has had on the wrong side of the the law. In 2005 he escaped three months time in the Maricopa County Jail after being sentenced to three years of supervised probation regarding a theft charge where Sallee pleaded guilty to stealing an unspecified amount of coins from his grandfather’s home.

At the time of sentencing, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Jeannie Garcia informed Sallee that if he violated the terms of his probation that he could face up to two years in the Arizona Department of Corrections.

If the Yavapai County case went forward, prosecutors planned on using the theft case as evidence against Salle.

A DUI (driving under the influence) case against Sallee was also dismissed in 2006, regarding a late 2005 incident in Wickenburg where Sallee was in a car accident.

Sallee was a narcotics detective in Wickenburg at the time of the accident and alleged DUI.

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