Four years af­ter be­ing charged with mis­be­hav­iour in pub­lic of­fice, for­mer head of the now-dis­band­ed Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Re­sponse Team (SORT), In­sp Mark Her­nan­dez, has been cleared of any wrong­do­ing.

De­spite the dis­missal of the charge, Her­nan­dez be­lieves cor­rupt el­e­ments in au­thor­i­ty were be­hind the case against him.

He was charged in 2021, months af­ter two sus­pects—An­drew “So­lo” Mor­ris and Joel Bel­con—died in po­lice cus­tody. Both men were de­tained in con­nec­tion with the Jan­u­ary 2021 kid­nap­ping and mur­der of Ari­ma court clerk An­drea Bharatt.