The Only Aggressor

When you have family that works for the Sheriff’s Office, you are above the law, untouchable and never held accountable. You can lie and manipulate a situation to actually make it look like you are a victim, when in fact you are the only aggressor. When you live your life believing that rules do not apply to you, you not only hurt others, but you will continue to be a repeat offender, constantly endangering others, all because you feel protected by the law. The law is supposed to protect the innocent, but in this case the law failed the innocent. Justice is not blind as it claims to be, but rather knowingly, turns a blind eye to protect biased interests and ignores the innocent, leaving them to defend themselves.

The following is a list of events, facts, and connections that prove that Jacob Rector was the only aggressor and got away with it just because is uncle, Shawn Braaten (#S0893) worked for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO). Additionally, a source within MCSO divulged that not only was Shawn Braaten the uncle of Jacob Rector, but Shawn was the “one pulling all the strings.”

Background Facts:

Jacob was Sarah’s manager at Fry’s grocery store and was not only written up for “insubordination” for following Sarah around at work, but he was later demoted.

Jacob told other management that they had to hire Sarah after seeing her at her initial interview.

Jacob would show up at work on his days off and was reprimanded for holding up Sarah’s line as he refused to go to any other cashier.

Jacob would wait in the parking lot for Sarah after work. Sarah was told by another manager, Regina Francis, that it looked like Jacob was stalking her and that it would turn into “an HR situation”.

Jacob knew Sarah was married and told her that was “bad for [him],” which made Sarah feel like she and her job were threatened since Jacob was her manager at the time.

Jacob knew DJ’s work schedule, as Sarah was required to give it to Fry’s so they knew her work availability. This means Jacob had access to know when Sarah and her young children would be home alone for at least 24 hours at a time.

Jacob would show up at Sarah’s house while DJ was working, unannounced and uninvited.

Jacob threatened Sarah that he “hated DJ” and “wanted him gone”. He also said that he wanted Sarah to get full custody of her kids, move to Washington with him, and that he would lie in court about physical abuse between DJ and Sarah so that she could.

In 2017, Jacob accused the Daisy Mountain Fire Department of kidnapping him because he did not want to be taken in an ambulance after his mother called 911 when he slipped and hit his head in their home. This shows a PATTERN of behavior in which Jacob always has to play being a “victim” and that it is always someone else’s fault.

After the alleged incident in 2017, Jacob actually moved 3 miles CLOSER to the Lee residence.

Shawn Braaten himself revealed in an interview (in which he was the subject of an internal investigation [IA2018-0457]) that Jacob would contact him directly when he was reprimanded by officers for playing his music too loud at the park in Anthem, AZ. Jacob knew that his uncle had more authority than the deputies who confronted him, so he would run to his uncle rather than obey the officers. Only when Jacob’s uncle Shawn told him to do as the officers instructed, would he comply

Events from August 1-2, 2017:

Between 9:45-10:30PM, the Lee’s dog ran outside barking towards the fence line, which caused the Lee’s to look at their security cameras. They saw a figure and a vehicle matching Jacob and his car parked outside the corner of their property. The individual got out of the car and proceeded to shine the light on his phone into their yard. This shows that this was PRE-MEDITATED and that he was ASSESSING THE SITUATION.

Jacob was told MULTIPLE times by Sarah via text message to “stay away” from Sarah and her home. He ignored all of these demands and made statements such as, “you owe me” and “you are not going to do this to me”.

Jacob’s mother admitted on body worn camera footage that she knew Sarah was married and told Jacob to stay away from Sarah.

Jacob’s grandmother told officers on body worn camera footage that “this had happened before” and asked the officers to “admonish (warn/reprimand) her grandson to keep his hands off of things that don’t belong to him.” Keep in mind that Jacob's grandmother stated this even after hearing all of Jacob's lies about what happened.

Jacob’s story to officers changed multiple times and was riddled with inconsistencies.

Jacob did not call 911. His mother called the non-emergency line for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, and states that NO medical attention is needed. Jacob agrees that he does NOT need any medical attention.

MCSO took pictures of Jacob’s “injuries” the day of the incident and then again 24 hours later. *Please see the “Pictures of Injuries” page for proof that there are NO injuries. In fact, you can even see Jacob smiling in the pictures as further evidence that he is not injured or traumatized.

Jacob admitted that he broke the law and was criminally speeding by going 140 mph all the way home from the Lee residence. This was completely ignored by MCSO.

Jacob’s mother reveals on body worn camera footage to Deputy Michael Fifield (#S2016) that her brother in law is Shawn Braaten. Deputy Fifield then tells Jacob’s mother that he and Sgt. Contino used to work with Braaten on large SWAT call outs. At this point, Deputy Fifield walks out to talk to his Sgt. Christopher Contino (#S1645) telling him that he needs to talk to him about “something unrelated,” and cameras get shut off. While these cameras are shut off, Deputy Dustin Baker (#S1988) can be seen on his body worn camera footage, walking out to talk to Sgt. Contino while Deputy Fifield and him are talking. Deputy Baker then asks Sgt. Contino and Deputy Fifield if their cameras are on or off, to which Sgt. Contino states they are off, and then Deputy Baker’s camera gets shut off as well. Once all the camera footage resumes, all of the officers on scene are aware of the familial connection.

After all officers are made aware of the familial connection, Deputy Baker advises Jacob’s family that they are going to “hit [the Lee residence] with SWAT.”

*At this point not a single officer had made contact at the Lee residence or had knocked on their door to talk with them.

Deputy Baker, who conducted Jacob’s initial interview, later drove Jacob to the MCSO Anthem substation for a 2nd interview with Detective Jerry Broadwater (#S1828). Jacob can he seen and heard on body worn camera footage stating that he doesn’t mind riding in the back of the Sheriff’s vehicle because “his uncle” works for the department and he has been in the back before. Deputy Baker responds by acknowledging who Jacob’s uncle is, and Jacob comments about Deputy Baker knowing his uncle Shawn, to which Deputy Baker confirms. Deputy Baker later told Jacob on the drive over to the Sheriff’s station (without being asked) on body worn camera footage that he and his dad both used to work with his uncle Shawn Braaten.

Later that morning, Jacob had a 2nd interview with Detective Jerry Broadwater (audio recorded only). ***This is a HUGE CONFLICT in that Detective Broadwater was friends with Jacob and should never have been the one conducting the interview. Not only did Detective Broadwater regularly shop at Fry’s where Jacob and Sarah worked, but he had a personal conversation with Sarah months prior in which he disclosed to Sarah that he had a personal relationship with Jacob, knew what kind of car he drove, and had asked Jacob as a favor to even keep a close eye on his daughters when they came in to shop.

*It’s important to note that Detective Broadwater was initially assigned to the case as the “case agent” or “lead Detective,” but was later promoted to work directly under Shawn Braaten in MCSO’s Professional Standards Bureau. Sarah had even brought the conflict up to Detective Broadwater’s superior, Sgt. Robert Hanson (#S1321) the day of DJ’s arrest. Sgt. Hanson was surprised to hear of the conflict, but then quickly fumbled over his words telling Sarah that “it didn’t matter.”

*Also important to note that the Lee’s have video evidence of Detective Broadwater following DJ and his children around in Costco in November 2017 while he was still assigned as case agent. Once this was brought to the prosecutor’s attention, Detective Broadwater was taken off as the lead Detective, and he was then promoted shortly after to work with Braaten.

During Jacob’s interview with Detective Broadwater, Jacob can be heard sending and receiving text messages from someone he claims to be his mother.

*This is another HUGE CONFLICT because not only should Jacob not be talking to anyone else during a police interview, but the only cell phone records of Jacob’s phone provided by MCSO during this case reveal that Jacob only received one text from his mother’s phone number and it was NOT during the time of the interview.

*This reveals that Jacob was communicating over a messaging App such as “What’sApp” in order to hide his conversations, since apps like this are designed to delete text message conversations within a certain period of time.

*This is the SAME messaging system that MCSO used during DJ’s arrest,* and the same messaging system (in addition to Signal) that both the City of Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, and the ex-City of Phoenix Police Chief Jeri Williams, admitted to using, to which they are currently part of an ongoing investigation with the Department of Justice (DOJ) because of it.

(*Protocol during an arrest is for officers to coordinate and communicate over “Channel 1,” which is also the channel that local news monitors for stories; however, protocol was ignored for DJ’s arrest. Officers were advised over Channel 1 that any officer on the call involving the person of interest (DJ), needed to contact a specific phone number. This phone number was verified as being linked to the What’sApp app. This was done strategically and intentionally so that plans could be made in secret between officers, and so the local news stations would be unaware of the event. This prevented the local media from being able to be present to witness and report MCSO’s blatant refusal to follow protocol, and their excessive use of force including their unethical use of SWAT at the Lee residence. The news would have had a heyday showing SWAT pointing guns not only at DJ and Sarah Lee, but also directly at their 3 and 4 year old children. It is important to note that although all of the SWAT officers were wearing body cameras, not a single officer had his turned on during the arrest, as this would have revealed their gross misconduct and failure to comply with their own policies.)

During Jacob’s initial interview with Deputy Baker, Jacob states that if he knew MCSO was coming, he would have planted his own hair at the Lee residence.

Biases, Misconduct, and Inconsistencies:

There are also at least 2 follow up phone interviews between Jacob and Detective Broadwater that there are NO recordings of. This is revealed in a recording where Detective Broadwater asks Jacob to clarify what he meant when he previously (not recorded) asked Detective Broadwater if his and Sarah’s “stories matched.”

Jacob’s phone was NEVER taken into evidence even though MCSO has photographic proof that Jacob tampered with evidence by deleting text messages off his phone between himself and Sarah.

*Important to note that these deleted text messages were intentionally not entered into evidence for years. Jacob LIED to Detective Broadwater when he told Detective Broadwater in his interview that all of the text messages between him and Sarah were on his phone. Since MCSO had taken Sarah’s phone into evidence (remember, Sarah was also labeled a victim [unwillingly and incorrectly] like Jacob, yet she was not given a choice to turn her phone over to MCSO-this shows BIASED treatment even between “victims”) MCSO was able to compare the text messages between the two phones. It was during this comparison that it was revealed that Jacob had deleted messages even though he told Detective Broadwater that they were all there.

*Jacob is never held accountable for this because of his familial connection within MCSO, and is further proof that he is untrustworthy and a liar. He gets away with lying and breaking the law, because the law does not apply to him as he is a part of the MCSO family. Furthermore, DJ asked to file trespassing charges against Jacob, and he was told in his interview by Detective Steve Horath (#S0759) that they had grounds to do so. Detective Horath stated that they would charge Jacob with trespassing, but of course they never did. Sarah went directly to MCSO and requested to file trespassing charges against Jacob in 2017, 2018, and 2019, to which she was told by MCSO that she had grounds to do so; however, Detective Albert Bouchard, the case agent that took over for Detective Jerry Broadwater, refused to file charges but only after the statute of limitations for filing had passed.

There are multiple houses between the Lee residence and Jacob’s house that have security cameras. These, in addition to traffic cameras, provide footage that could have been obtained by MCSO as proof of not only the timing of the incident, but also of Jacob’s speed and whereabouts upon returning to his home. MCSO, however, refused to investigate or get this evidence which only proves that they knew Jacob was lying. If MCSO had done their due diligence in investigating, they would have solid evidence that showed Jacob’s lies and culpability as the perpetrator.

County Prosecutor Catherine Ferguson-Gilbert stated during a settlement conference on December 15, 2017, that “come hell or high water,” she would get Jacob’s phone even if she had to subpoena him for it. This would have shown:

Jacob’s location before and after the incident
Who Jacob had contacted
The accurate duration of the incident
The deleted text messages

In July 2018, new case agent Albert Bouchard (#S1794), called Jacob at the prosecutor’s request and requested that Jacob turn over his phone to MCSO. Jacob refused stating that he did not want his personal information gone through. At this point Jacob stopped returning Detective Bouchard’s phone calls, yet Detective Bouchard still took NO ACTION to get Jacob’s phone, including not issuing a warrant for his physical phone. Instead Detective Chris Brown (#S2002) issued a subpoena to Jacob’s cell phone provider, Sprint, for all information on Jacob’s phone including messages, phone records, and locations, but Detective Brown wrote the subpoena for the wrong year. This was never submitted to Sprint, and once this “error” had been revealed to the defense years later, Detective Brown authored a new subpoena for Jacob’s phone records, and he shortened the search parameters. By this time, Sprint stated that it was past their retention to preserve certain records, and they were only able to retrieve Jacob’s call/message log, but no data.

Direct Connection to Shawn Braaten:

(Reference the “Officer Misconduct” page for additional details)

Jacob could NOT even pick DJ out of a photo lineup!

The photo lineup was conducted by Detective Tyler Thompson (#S1681). Thompson used to report directly to Shawn Braaten, as he was his supervisor in 2011.

*It’s important to note that of all the pictures presented to Jacob for him to identify DJ, DJ’s picture was the ONLY one formatted differently, and Jacob can be heard on the audio recording stating that he was “almost positive [DJ] was not in any of [the pictures].”

Both Detectives Chris Brown (#S2002) and Albert Bouchard (#S1794) were currently under internal investigation by Shawn Braaten when they were assigned to this case (IA2017-0349).

*This is another HUGE issue as it poses a conflict of interest in that Shawn Braaten was investigating these two detectives for misconduct, and yet they were handpicked to be investigating a case involving Shawn Braaten’s nephew, Jacob. No doubt this was done to hold leverage over these detectives and ensure that the narrative went a certain way.

*Don’t forget that an officer within MCSO (who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from the department) came forward to the Lee’s and told them not only that Shawn Braaten was Jacob’s uncle, but that he was the one “pulling all the strings.”

Detective Matthew Ratcliffe (#S1553) was setup as the “look out” at the Lee residence on 8/2/17. He observed Sarah outside around 5:30AM alone feeding her animals, and later witnessed DJ and his children playing together outside. This detective later asked Sarah if she had seen him in his vehicle outside that morning, and stated that he saw Sarah feeding her animals with her phone in her back pocket, which seemed “business as usual.” This was NEVER documented by this detective in a supplemental report because these interactions showed that:

It was NOT a hostile situation
That Sarah was NOT being held against her will
That Sarah had possession of her phone and could have called for help if she was in danger

Detective Ratcliffe was involved in the Compliance Order mandated by Judge Murray Snow during the Sheriff Joe Arpaio regime, in which officers were found to be racially profiling individuals in a scheme to get them deported. Detective Ratcliffe’s direct supervisor during this time was Shawn Braaten.

https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/sheriff-plays-dumb-pt-2-she-wanted-this-matter-pursued-further-663507

Detective Ratcliffe requested DNA from Jacob and then later sent this buccal swab, plus a sample of Jacob’s hair, to the lab for comparison. The suspicious thing about this request is that Detective Ratcliffe sent in two samples of Jacob’s hair: one that was taken from Jacob the night of the incident, and the other from a separate request for a hair sample directly from Jacob. These were then sent in for analysis with the purpose of seeing if they matched, which of course they did, because both samples were taken directly from Jacob. Officers stated that they “found” hair from Jacob at the Lee residence, yet they NEVER tested this hair sample, which poses the question of why Detective Ratcliffe needed another sample?

Detective Steve Horath (#S0759) worked on a community service project with Shawn Braaten, which was posted on social media.

While DJ was in MCSO’s 4th Ave. Jail from 8/2/17-8/4/17, Shawn Braaten’s son, Austin Braaten, was on duty working as a Detention Officer.

*Important to Note:

DJ’s bail was set extremely high at $25,000, yet it was still posted the following morning of 8/3/17 around 8:30AM; however, DJ was not released until 8/4/17 around 3-4PM.

DJ was told by an officer that because he was a firefighter, he could claim “Ad-rest,” which would give him the opportunity to be placed in an isolation cell. When DJ asked for this, however, his request was DENIED because the officers stated they did not want to do the paperwork for it. Additionally, DJ was told if he complained about it, they would “make his life a living hell.” The only reason DJ had even requested this was because an inmate spit on him and told him that he “looked like a cop.”

DJ was intentionally put in a cell with an inmate who later told DJ that he was “told to mess [DJ] up” and “they all agreed to jump [DJ].” This inmate told DJ, however, that he changed his mind because DJ earned his respect by looking him in the eye and shaking his hand. This inmate additionally told DJ that he did not think DJ deserved to be there, and quoted scripture from the Bible to him.

DJ was released on 8/4/17 on bail, but he was also required to wear an ankle monitor, which was not removed until January 2018. During this time DJ would receive calls in the middle of the night, and only on nights before a court hearing, from someone claiming to be from the “monitoring company.” This individual would wake DJ up just to tell him to “move” because they could not track him due to inactivity (even though DJ had been sleeping). DJ contacted the Bail Bonds company and his Pre-trial Services Officer to inquire if they had called him in the middle of the night, or if they were aware of anyone who would call him, but neither entity had any idea what he was talking about, as the phone calls did not come from them.

After DJ was released from jail on 8/4/17 he returned home to the Lee residence. Later that night, DJ had to call 911 because someone was trying to break into his back gate. Even though DJ had a dog who was outside barking at the gate, this did not deter this individual who was trying to pick the lock while holding a penlight in his mouth. DJ went outside and asked the individual, “Hey, can I help you?” At this point the individual saw DJ, then ran to a car a few feet away where another person was sitting in the driver seat. This individual then jumped into the passenger side, and they drove off. DJ called 911, who sent out two MCSO officers who DID NOT file a police report of the incident even though they took pictures of the tire tracks. Additionally, no body worn camera footage was submitted by the officers and the officers labeled the incident as “suspicious activity” even though DJ told the 911 dispatcher it was a “break in”. DJ’s sister was also present and a witness to these events.

When the facts are laid out, it becomes abundantly clear to see how having connections within MCSO allows one to not only change the narrative of events, but to also be labeled a victim when the true label should be perpetrator. When someone has family that not only works in law enforcement, but is also in charge writing the departments’s policies (see section on Shawn Braaten on the “Officer Misconduct” page), then he is treated as being above the law, and thus the rules do not apply to him. The unfortunate repercussions of this entitlement are not isolated, but rather affect the lives of countless individuals and their families in severely detrimental ways. The sad irony is that those who are responsible for holding others accountable to follow laws, are the ones who are the least accountable, and their actions prove that they believe the laws do not apply to them.