Arson Lawyer in Scottsdale, AZ

The city's pages do not lay out a step-by-step fire investigation procedure, but they show who documents a suspicious fire. The Scottsdale Fire Department's records system offers fire investigation reports and investigation photos alongside ordinary incident reports. Its records page says an investigation report is generated for most kinds of fires that require an investigation, that photos depend on the type of investigation, and that records for an incident still under investigation may be redacted or withheld. The department's Prevention Division employs fire marshals and inspectors, and its Professional Standards Division, the department says, manages an interactive relationship with the Scottsdale Police Department.

The criminal side runs through Scottsdale Police. Its Investigations section puts detectives and analysts on property crimes, among others. Among the calls the Crime Scene Unit may answer, the Forensic Services Division lists fire investigations, and its specialists document scenes with photographs, diagrams, trace and biological evidence collection, footwear and tire impressions and a 3-D laser scanner. The division's published list of lab units runs from latent prints and DNA to controlled substances, blood alcohol and digital forensics, without a fire debris section, so where any debris samples were analyzed is a question for disclosure.

Section 13-1703 of the Arizona Revised Statutes requires two knowing acts: knowingly causing a fire or explosion, and through it knowingly and unlawfully damaging a structure or property. Damage means any physical or visual impairment of a surface, so nothing has to burn down. A structure is any building, vehicle or other place with sides and a floor that is used for lodging, business, transportation, recreation or storage. A fire caused recklessly instead of knowingly falls outside 13-1703, but it can still be charged as reckless burning under A.R.S. 13-1702, a class 1 misdemeanor that also reaches fires in wildland. Arson of an occupied structure under A.R.S. 13-1704 is a class 2 felony, and an occupied structure includes any dwelling house, whether someone was home or the house stood vacant.

What burned sets the class. A structure fire is charged as class 4 arson whatever the structure was worth. Arson of other property is graded by worth: over $1,000 is class 4, over $100 up to $1,000 is class 5, and $100 or less is a class 1 misdemeanor. Only the misdemeanor forms stay in the city, where the City Attorney's Prosecution Division brings misdemeanor crimes committed in Scottsdale at Scottsdale City Court, 3700 N. 75th St. The same office's page names the Maricopa County Attorney's Office and the Arizona Attorney General's Office as the prosecutors of state felonies arising in Scottsdale, and Superior Court downtown hears those cases.

A felony fire arrest leads to the Sheriff's Initial Appearance Court, which sits daily at the Intake, Transfer and Release facility, 2670 S. 28th Dr., Phoenix. The rules give the system 24 hours from arrest to hold it (Ariz. R. Crim. P. 4.1). It also happens before any prosecutor has signed off: per the Sheriff's page, the County Attorney still has to review the allegations, and a case it declines can go back to the investigating agency with no formal charges.

A felony fire count can also carry a dangerousness allegation. If proven, the allegation brings A.R.S. 13-704 into play: a prison term, with probation off the table. The facts behind it get our attention from the first week.

Physical evidence, a gas can, clothing or a phone for instance, is typically logged with Scottsdale Police Property and Evidence. Its rule, as the department describes it, is that nothing held as evidence comes back without the case officer's sign-off, and pickups are by appointment.

Avoiding jail is not the same as avoiding a conviction. A felony arson conviction makes a person a prohibited possessor of firearms under A.R.S. 13-3101 until the right is restored, and it can turn up in background checks for jobs, rentals and professional licenses. A.R.S. 13-603(C) requires restitution of the full economic loss as the court determines it, which after a fire can be a very large figure. A criminal case and an insurance claim about the same fire can shape each other, and a noncitizen should get immigration advice before any plea.

A fire allegation can start at a ranch house in south Scottsdale, a condo near Old Town, a restaurant kitchen downtown, a vehicle in a parking structure near the Airpark, a construction site in north Scottsdale, or brush near a McDowell Sonoran Preserve trailhead. Desert lots and washes can bring reckless burning questions into a case even where no building was involved.

Inside city limits, Scottsdale Fire and Scottsdale Police are generally the agencies involved. On Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community land east of Scottsdale, the tribal government's own police and court take over, and a fire on unincorporated county land can involve the Sheriff's Office. A felony fire charge from any of these places is tried downtown in Superior Court either way.

Call (480) 405-6767. When a fire official, a detective or an adjuster asks for your statement, phoning beats the web form.

Nova Law Group, PLLC, 4455 E. Camelback Rd., Suite C250, Phoenix, AZ 85018. Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., by appointment.