Wadsack Drops Lawsuit Against Tucson PD

BY Howard Fischer Arizona Capitol Times | September 9th, 2025

Former state lawmaker Justine Wadsack is dropping her claim that Tucson police and others violated her civil rights with a 2024 traffic stop.

In new court filings Tuesday, the former state senator from Tucson told U.S. District Court Judge Jennifer Zipps that she is “experiencing a family health crisis’’ and that there has been a “negative impact of this lawsuit on my ability to care for my family.’’

EDITORS NOTE: Wadsack lost to SaddleBrooke’s Vince Leach in the 2024 primary for State Senate. She has moved to Gilbert.

Wadsack also “sincerely’’ apologized for her failure to show up in court on Aug. 26 as the judge had ordered. That was for a hearing to determine whether Dennis Wilenchik should be able to withdraw as her attorney.

But in her court filing Tuesday, she said there’s a reason she was a no-show in court.

“As noted in prior filings, I am experiencing a family health crisis that is physically and mentally draining,’’ Wadsack wrote.

“Consequently, I will at time lose focus and mix up specific dates and times,’’ she told the judge. “That is what caused my failure to appear.’’
But during the time she was supposed to be in court, Wadsack posted on X that she was at a presentation by Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point Action. Wadsack later told Capitol Media Services she is now employed by that organization.

Wadsack offered no details in Tuesday’s filing on what she called her “underlying family health crisis.’’ Instead she told Zipps she would, if required, submit details confidentially to the judge “given the deeply personal nature of the issue.’’

Wilenchik, in what is likely his last action on Wadsack’s behalf, told the judge that her request to dismiss the case should end the matter without the need for further court action. What it also does, he said, is preclude the court from considering a request by attorneys for Tucson that Wadsack be sanctioned both for failing to pursue the case as well as for failing to show up.
The lawsuit is an outgrowth of a traffic stop in April 2024 on East Speedway, where the Tucson police officer said she was driving 71 miles an hour in a 35 mph zone, which is a felony.

She was not issued a ticket at the time because the Arizona Constitution exempts legislators from arrest while the Legislature is in session. And Wadsack said she had a placard attached to her rear license plate noting she was a senator.

But that constitutional provision did not preclude police from citing her after the session ended. Wadsack settled the matter by completing a defensive driving course.

That, however, was not the end of the matter.

Earlier this year, she filed suit against the police officer who pulled her over in the first place, as well as the city and various others in the Tucson Police Department, accusing them in federal court of violating her civil rights.

Wadsack said police sought to cause her “embarrassment and emotional distress as well as destruction to her character and legislative position by charging her with the bogus traffic crime, and publicizing it.’’
She claimed all of this was in retaliation because she was an “outspoken critic of the Tucson City government.’’

Wadsack also said she was targeted as a member of the Freedom Caucus, composed of the most conservative members of the Legislature, and “because she is a womaRemove featured imagen and her primary opponent was a man who TPD officials felt could be controlled better.’’

That opponent was Vince Leach, who she had defeated in the 2022 GOP primary. Leach ended up winning the primary in 2024 — after all the publicity about her citation — and now represents the legislative district that makes up much of northern and eastern Pima County and the southern part of Pinal County.

Wadsack, declined to comment beyond what is in the pleadings.
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