PHOENIX (CBS5) -
A Phoenix police detective is accused of botching dozens of cases involving children.
Former Detective Philip Shores tells us he retired last year, but at the time he was under investigation for mishandling dozens of cases involving crimes against children, which he denies.
"I served 23 1/2 years, with absolutely no discipline," said Shores. But according to a report from the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board, he may have been disciplined had he not retired. In September of last year, a colleague suspected he was mishandling cases. That's around the same time we learned the department mishandled hundreds of child sex crime cases.
"I don't know what's going on," he told us. "I haven't had contact with PD since I retired."
The colleague said Shores was convincing family members of the victims not to prosecute and was receiving overtime for cases he didn't properly investigate. Then an audit found in a year period, 79 percent of Shores' cases they reviewed weren't handled properly - or 42 out of the 49 cases they looked at. Those 42 cases were closed within three days.
"I don't know anything about it, I don't have any comment on that because I don't know anything about it," he said.
But that's not all. The report says a month before he retired last year, Shores was assigned a new city car. When they inspected his old one, they found several print-outs in the glove-box showing inappropriate pictures and jokes.
"I don't know anything about that," Shores said.
Shores, who tells us he's a pastor of the Church on the Rock in Peoria, may lose his peace officer certification for this after the board decided to research his case this month.
The Phoenix Police Department declined an on-camera interview but sent us a statement saying some of the botched cases included administrative violations, and said, "Very few cases, about a handful have been sent back over to the county attorney's office seeking additional charging." They also say they will give an update on the department's mishandled cases this fall.
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