APACHE JUNCTION, AZ — Prosecuted criminal cases from Apache Junction rose 14.2% over three years, according to a new Apache Junction prosecuted cases review. Pinal County Attorney Brad Miller presented the findings to the City Council on July 7, 2026. His review covered about 2,020 felony and misdemeanor cases his office prosecuted from 2023 through 2025. Miller attributed much of the increase to active enforcement by Apache Junction police, while cautioning that the data reflects prosecuted cases, not every crime or police call. He also named the local Walmart as the city’s most persistent prosecuted-case hotspot.
Councilmember Bryan Soller, who also serves as a lieutenant with the Mesa Police Department, closed the discussion by praising how Miller’s office charges cases. “I deal with Maricopa County and I want to thank you,” Soller said. “You actually do a county attorney’s job, and you don’t drop stuff and send stuff back all the time. And you’re following through and you’re making sure that the crimes are charged appropriately.”
Soller added that this follow-through matters for residents and officers alike. “That’s big for the community, and that’s big for the officers that go out and make those arrests, because you’re standing behind me and getting the job done,” he said. In response, Miller thanked him and said his office still “wants to do better.”
Inside the Apache Junction Prosecuted Cases Review
The figures cover only cases his office prosecuted, not overall crime. “This is not every call your police department goes to. These are just cases that we’ve actually prosecuted,” he said. He also cautioned that the numbers do not predict future crime. Instead, he credited local officers for the rising caseload. He called the department “active and proactive and probably one of the most in the entire county.”
Case volume climbed in each year of the review.
| Year | Cases prosecuted |
|---|---|
| 2023 | 641 |
| 2024 | 647 |
| 2025 | 732 |
The 2025 total marks a 13.1% jump in a single year. Miller noted that 2025 was also his first year in office. Felonies made up about 81% of all cases. He said that share signals “a meaningful shift to higher impact type of criminal activity.”
Several categories grew far faster than the overall caseload.
| Category | Change in prosecutions (2023 → 2025) |
|---|---|
| Family offenses | Up 131%, from 13 cases to 30 |
| Criminal damage | Up 91% |
| Weapons and explosives offenses | Up about 77%, from 13 cases to 23 |
| Driving under the influence | Up about 76%, reaching 44 cases in 2025 |
| Misdemeanors overall | Up about 60%, from 96 cases to 153 |
| Sexual offenses | Up 57% |
| Child sex trafficking and related prostitution | Nine cases in 2025, the first in the dataset |
Miller said the misdemeanor growth suggests to him that the justice system is “handling these lower level offenses that impact our daily lives.” Robbery cases also increased. Meanwhile, assault prosecutions held steady at 91 to 99 cases per year, about 14% of all cases.
Miller cited four homicide prosecutions in 2023, two in 2024, and one in 2025 — the murder of Officer Gabriel Facio, whom Miller called “our hero.” His office is seeking the death penalty in the case, and Miller said his position is that anyone who kills a police officer should face execution.
Drug Cases Drop as a Share of Prosecutions
Not every trend in the Apache Junction prosecuted cases update pointed upward. Drug cases fell as a share of all prosecutions, from 32.5% in 2023 to 25.1% in 2025. They remained the largest single category, totaling 600 cases across the three years. Miller called that drop a positive sign for the overall criminal picture. He said drugs tend to lead to “assaults, thefts, burglaries, robberies, and unfortunately sometimes homicides.” Still, he said drugs are not driving the recent growth. Instead, the increases come from DUIs, family violence, theft, traffic violations and sex offenses.
Councilmember Tess Nesser asked about the city’s decades-old reputation as the “meth capital of Arizona.” Miller said the three most common drug charges — dangerous drugs, narcotic drugs and drug paraphernalia — are all declining. “As far as being the meth capital, the numbers do not show that, especially over the last three years,” he said. He added that the city can “disabuse that rumor” because those cases are “going down pretty significantly.”
Violent Crime, Repeat Offenders and Crimes Against Children
Miller said his office moved away from smaller issues after he took office. Prosecutors are now “focusing our efforts on violent crime, repeat offenders, people who commit crimes against children. That’s really where we’re putting our focus,” he said. As a result, his office changed its plea policies and is “no longer going easy on these types of crimes.” Miller has delivered similar updates to other Pinal County municipalities in recent months, outlining similar priorities around violent criminals, repeat offenders and crimes against children.
Miller singled out the nine child sex trafficking cases prosecuted in Apache Junction, which appeared for the first time in his office’s dataset in 2025 and concentrated around a few locations. He attributed their emergence to proactive sting operations run by Apache Junction police, saying officers were “setting traps for these people who are willing to pay for sex with children” and drawing in suspects from across the state. Apache Junction police have run such operations, including Operation Stranger Things, a two-day January 2025 sting that produced 14 arrests and more than 39 felony charges. The cases also surfaced in the first year of a new Special Victims Unit Miller launched in March 2025. The unit prosecutes cases of sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, elder abuse, and human trafficking. Its attorneys are specifically trained for these cases. Victim advocates work with survivors from the initial report through the end of the case, and the unit coordinates with police, medical staff, and social service agencies.
Miller urged the council to view the nine cases as evidence of aggressive enforcement rather than a rising local threat. “I don’t think you understand what your police chief and what your police department is doing here,” he said. “They are protecting not only this town and this city, they’re protecting Pinal County and Maricopa County as a whole.” He called Apache Junction’s force “one of the most proactive police departments in the county, if not the state.” Apache Junction, he said, “should wear that with a badge of honor.”
He said prosecutors seek “very, very high punishments” in those cases. In some, they extend no reduced-sentence plea deal, meaning either path ends at life imprisonment. “It’s plead to life or go to trial, where we will convict you and send you to prison for life,” Miller said. “Those are your choices.”
Walmart Tops the Hotspot List for a Third Year
Miller presented three offense-location maps covering 2023 through 2025 to show how the city’s hotspots shifted, or held steady, across the review period. Each map numbers the top nine locations by prosecuted case volume, with #1 marking the highest concentration.
One address dominated across all three years: the local Walmart, marked as #1 on each map. “It’s your Walmart,” Miller said. Walmart accounted for 31 prosecuted cases and has ranked as the top location in each of the three years reviewed, sitting “way above the rest of the areas.” Councilmember Bambi Johnson asked what drives the activity there. “Drugs, theft, assaults. Those are our top three crimes that we’re seeing at Walmart,” Miller replied.
The #2 cluster on the maps sits at the Apache Junction Police Department. Miller said it does not reflect crime at that address. Instead, officers appear to enter the department’s address on certain child abuse, kidnapping and sexual offense cases, which inflates the count there.
Other problems clustered along recurring stretches. For example, the US 60 corridor produced trafficking cases and DUI enforcement. Areas around Idaho Road and Royal Palm showed concentrated family violence and sex crimes.
In his recommendations, Miller urged the city to “prioritize what’s happening at Walmart” and to keep pressing DUI enforcement.
Councilmember Peter Heck asked about the role of illegal immigration in local crime. Miller said many such cases are handled at the federal level, moving to the U.S. Attorney’s Office after ATF, DEA or FBI investigations, which is why his office does not have a full statistical breakdown. Locally, he said, the ones his office does prosecute tend to involve violent crime, traffic offenses or domestic violence.
A 1980s Childhood Behind the Prosecutor’s Mission
Miller opened his remarks with a memory from his own youth. He grew up in the 1980s, riding his bike to the park after school and staying out all day. There, he played baseball and Wiffle ball with friends. “We never once worried about what’s happening in our park,” he said. “My mother never wondered, ‘Is there something going on? Are there needles on the ground? Is it unsafe?'”
He tied that memory directly to his work today. “The reason why we do what we do here, your law enforcement, both myself and your police department, is to keep this community safe,” Miller said. He pledged to keep pushing and stay proactive.
Miller emphasized his office’s partnership with Apache Junction police. He described himself as a career prosecutor with about 18 years of experience across the civilian side and current service in the United States Marine Corps. He said his office has a very good relationship with the department and will continue working with police, the sheriff’s office and federal partners on key corridors, repeat locations, and prevention and intervention programs for families and youth. He called improved sex offender registration compliance another big win for Apache Junction.
Three Years of Prosecuted Case Data Available Online
The county attorney’s office has provided three documents for public access:
- Apache Junction Criminal Case Analysis 2023–2025 — Miller’s three-year statistical breakdown: annual case volume, severity classification, charge category totals, year-over-year trends, and recommendations for the council.
- Apache Junction Offense Location Analysis 2023–2025 — the address-level data behind the hotspots, ranking top locations with three-year case counts, primary crime types, and notes on which are rising, declining, or newly emerged.
- County Attorney Criminal Law Update — the slide deck Miller presented to the council on July 7, including the offense-location maps.
