Arizona Republican could lose office after pulling a gun in road-rage incident

A Navajo County grand jury has indicted the county’s recorder, Timothy Jordan, on three criminal charges in connection with a road rage incident just before the November election.

This article was originally published by Votebeat, a nonprofit news organization covering local election administration and voting access.

The Feb. 11 indictment accuses Jordan of disorderly conduct with a weapon, a felony charge, as well as two misdemeanors: disorderly conduct and false reporting to a law enforcement agency. Votebeat exclusively requested and obtained the indictment.

Jordan, a Republican, defeated the Democratic incumbent, Michael Sample, in the Nov. 5 election. As recorder, Jordan controls voter registration and early voting in the northern Arizona county. State law prohibits anyone convicted of a felony from holding public office.

The Navajo County Attorney’s Office initially transferred the case to Coconino County to prosecute because Jordan is now an elected official, according to a spokesperson for the office. But Coconino prosecutors then presented evidence of the alleged offenses to a Navajo County grand jury, according to the Coconino County attorney, because a criminal case must be heard by a grand jury in the jurisdiction where the offense occurred.

At an arraignment on Monday in Navajo County Superior Court, the court entered a not guilty plea on Jordan’s behalf, according to the court clerk’s office.

Jordan, 46, allegedly pulled out a gun during a conflict with two 18-year-old men who had been tailing his truck in an SUV on Oct. 23, according to a report from the Show Low Police Department. The incident took place near the parking lot of his child’s school.

He said in an interview with Votebeat that he pulled out the gun in self-defense after he “felt in fear for my life.”

Jordan’s accounts of the incident have shifted, according to the police report. He initially told the officer who responded to the scene that he did not pull out his gun, the report said, but later acknowledged that he took it out of his waistband as he approached the SUV.

According to the police report, Jordan also initially told the officer that the other men had guns, but then later told him they did not. In an interview with Votebeat last week, Jordan repeated his claim that the other men had guns, and denied telling the officer that they did not. Asked about this, a spokesperson for the Show Low Police Department said the report reflects the officer’s recollection of what Jordan said.

For their part, those two men later told a police officer they did not have guns and never got out of the SUV, according to the police report. Officers did not find any guns in the SUV.

When the police officer later asked Jordan why he had not been honest initially about taking out his gun, Jordan brought up his campaign for recorder, according to the police report.

“Timothy told me he was scared and nervous because he was running for office and knew what was at stake,” the officer wrote in the report.

Jordan was arrested and released after paying a $3,500 bail.

The driver of the SUV was initially charged with disorderly conduct and criminal damage. His charges were dismissed, according to the Navajo County Attorney’s Office. The passenger was fined $250 for disorderly conduct, according to court records. Votebeat was not able to find contact information for either man.

Jordan said he will present evidence to the court that he acted in self defense; he declined to share that evidence with Votebeat. He said he believes the charges against him are politically motivated.

Jordan, an Army veteran who recently worked in property management, moved to the area in 2021 and told Votebeat the recorder’s race was his first bid for public office.

Jordan told police he was hurrying to pick up his child from school at around 3:30 pm on Oct. 23 when he came to a stop sign at the same time as the SUV. He told an officer that he “kind of rolled” through the stop sign. The driver of the SUV told police that he was upset that Jordan had cut him off.

The accounts of what happened diverge from there, as documented in the police report: Jordan said the SUV began tailing him aggressively, while the SUV driver said that Jordan “brake checked” him. Jordan pulled over at the entrance to the school’s parking lot, and both sides told police they felt blocked by the other.

Jordan then got out of his truck. He told the officer that three men got out of the SUV, but the two men the officer interviewed said no one got out of their vehicle, and there was not a third person in the SUV.

Jordan told the officer “the driver and the front passenger began waving guns.”­

At this point in the interview, the officer wrote, “Timothy made a gesture with both of his hands as if he were shooting pistols from his hip.” He described the two guns, including the models, to the officer. He said they were pointing the guns at the ground, not at him.

When interviewing the SUV driver later, the officer wrote, the driver appeared confused when he told him Jordan had said they had pistols in their hands. He told the officer they did not have guns and did not own any.

The police report notes that the men were yelling at each other, and the officer wrote that Jordan told him “he was trying to use a tactic that is used to scare a bear away by yelling louder than the other males.

The men both told the officer, separately, that they knew Jordan had a gun at that point because they saw him reach for his waistband. The driver of the SUV told the officer he then sped off because he was afraid.

Initially, Jordan told the officer that he “had a firearm in his truck” but that he never pulled it out.

“I told Timothy he could’ve told me the truth and didn’t have to lie,” the officer wrote. “Timothy said he agreed and said he shouldn’t have lied to me.”

Later, the men in the SUV drove back to the school parking lot and threw a cup full of liquid at Jordan’s truck, the police report said.

In an interview with Votebeat, Jordan pointed to that, saying the other people involved in the incident wouldn’t have returned to do that if they were afraid and if he “was some crazy, gun-slinging guy.”

Jen Fifield is a reporter for Votebeat based in Arizona. Contact Jen at jfifield@votebeat.org.

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