There are new details emerging now about a raid that went horribly wrong earlier this month, when bounty hunters stormed the house of the Phoenix police chief.
Nearly a dozen armed bounty hunters swarmed Joseph Yahner’s home on Aug. 4, looking for a wanted man from Oklahoma. The armed men from two bond-recovery companies apparently received an erroneous tip that Roderick Battle – a fugitive wanted on drug charges – would be at the home.
“I don’t give a f–k who you’re looking for,” Yahner can be heard yelling on a cell phone video that captured the moment when he opened the door in his boxers, to find the strangers at his doorstep. With a flashlight shining in his face, the police chief slammed the door shut and emerged moments later with a baton in hand,” the Huffington Post reported.
Police are now saying that a rival bounty hunter is responsible for that anonymous tip that prompted fugitive recovery agent Brent Farley to mistakenly target Yahner’s home. Farley allegedly refused to leave the property at the time and was subsequently arrested on charges of criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct.
The other bounty hunter, 28-year-old Aaron Bray, is facing a single count of “computer tampering for reckless use to engage in a scheme.” He could face up to two years in prison. Phoenix police say the FBI assisted them in tracing the anonymous tip to Bray, who reportedly also bragged to an associate that he was behind the false tip.
“I think the chief was used as a conduit to create the problem with Farley,” Sgt. Trent Crump said.
According to ABC15, Bray and another bondsman conspired to use an Oklahoma area code to target Farley’s team. Apparently, the two didn’t like how Farley and his company NorthStar were doing business.
Farley told fox10phoenix he has retained an attorney and plans to file a lawsuit against Bray.
