PHOENIX — Former Arizona prisons chief Charles Ryan was sentenced Friday to two years of supervised probation on a felony charge for an armed standoff with Tempe police in 2022.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Geoffrey Fish declined to add jail time to the sentence, despite Ryan's having pointed a gun at the SWAT team officers who responded to his home.
A police narrative said the officers feared for their lives
Fish rejected Ryan's request to remove the felony charge.
"This court sees daily crimes involving guns with all sorts of outcomes," Fish said.
"There are certain crimes in which a designation is appropriate... The designation of the felony in the court system is punishment enough."
As a felon, the 73-year-old Ryan loses the right to vote and own a gun. Under his plea agreement, Ryan is required to comply with mental health assessments and substance abuse programs as part of his probation.
Ryan's lawyer blamed the standoff on alcohol abuse.
"If it wasn't for alcohol, this never would have happened," Craig Penrod, Ryan's lawyer, told the judge. "At the time, he was essentially in blackout mode."
Ryan shared that he had participated in 700 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings since the standoff.
Ryan retired as prisons director in August 2019. He had served in the role for 10 years under two governors.
A week after Ryan stepped down, an independent investigation of broken cell door locks at a state prison harshly criticized Ryan's leadership, saying he was "surprisingly uninformed."
Ryan previously pleaded no contest to a disorderly conduct charge stemming from when police say he fired a gun inside his Tempe home and pointed a firearm at two officers during a three-hour standoff in 2022.
Police were called to Ryan’s house Jan. 6, 2022, on a report that he had shot himself in the hand. It was later revealed by police that the hand injury was caused by a less-than-lethal projectile fired by police after Ryan pointed a handgun at officers. They say the projectile was found during surgery.
Ryan also was injured when he fired his gun before police arrived. He apparently suffered a cut to the forehead after a bullet hit a bathroom sink and sent a splinter of porcelain flying.
Police reports say Ryan had consumed half a bottle of tequila by the time officers arrived at his property. Police say he slurred his words, was antagonistic toward a negotiator and did not know why officers were there or what had happened to his injured hand.
Ryan told police he didn’t remember pointing a gun at officers. He acknowledged drinking tequila that evening, though he said he had just two shots.
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