| On September 13, 2018, police in Scottsdale, Arizona, pulled over 20-year-old Vincent Marez. The police report doesn’t say why police initiated the traffic stop, but it said that Marez was impaired. Marez was given a Breathalyzer, which came back negative for the presence of alcohol. He was then arrested and charged with driving while impaired. Later, Marez’s blood was drawn for analysis to detect the presence of controlled substances.
Marez pled guilty to driving while impaired in Scottsdale City Court on October 9, 2018. He received a fine and was sentenced to a day in jail.
In September 2019, Scottsdale hired Shawn Fuller as the city’s prosecutor. Shortly after his hiring, Fuller heard a rumor that the prosecutor’s office was not disclosing exculpatory lab results to defendants. He began an audit, and found several instances where defendants had pled guilty without knowledge of exculpatory lab results.
One of those cases was Marez’s. His conviction was vacated and the charge was dismissed on October 29, 2019. Another defendant, Antonio Herrera, was also exonerated based on similar circumstances.
Several city judges in Scottsdale wrote a letter of complaint to the Arizona State Bar in November 2019, asking the agency to review the actions of prosecutors, whom they said had received the results of the lab tests before Marez and other defendants entered pleas. The results of that inquiry aren’t known.
After Fuller completed his audit, the city fired him for gender discrimination in early 2020. Fuller sued the city, claiming his termination was actually in retaliation for the audit and actions he took in response to the audit’s findings. A jury awarded him $5.25 million in May 2024.
– Ken Otterbourg
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