Child Abuse Lawyer in Scottsdale, AZ

Scottsdale puts the agencies that handle these reports under one roof. At 10225 E. Via Linda the city runs a Family Advocacy Center that names child abuse first among the crimes it serves, with the stated aim of making investigations of crimes against persons more effective while easing the strain on victims. The city organizes it into five teams: a Law Enforcement Team of police investigators, a Child Safety and Welfare Team staffed by the Department of Child Safety, a Legal Coordination Team of city prosecutors, a Medical Support Team of forensic nurse examiners and a Crisis Response Team. Its floor plan, as the city lists it, includes a pair of interview rooms, a room for processing evidence and space where detectives work with video.

An older city page about the center, which carries no date, says more about the child safety side. It describes DCS staff who evaluate child abuse cases with police, monitor victim interviews, interview parents and suspects, and make temporary custody decisions. Whatever the current arrangement, one report can put a family in front of both a detective and a child safety investigator, and a parent's words to one agency can reach the other.

If a child was interviewed or examined at the center, the recordings, the way each question was framed and the examiner's notes become central defense material, and they come through disclosure. The city does not publish which interviews take place on Via Linda, so each case's disclosure shows it. Scottsdale Police's Crime Scene Unit also lists abuse cases among the calls it may answer, and its photographs and evidence logs can matter as much as any statement.

Child abuse is a felony in every form A.R.S. 13-3623 describes, so the count itself never belongs to Scottsdale City Court. The prosecutor page for the city routes state felonies to the County Attorney, or to the Attorney General for certain cases, and the County Attorney's Family Violence Bureau names child abuse among the domestic violence cases it prosecutes. That office can take the case to a grand jury or bring a direct complaint that a judge reviews at a preliminary hearing. Trial-level work then happens at the Central Court Building, 201 W. Jefferson St., or the South Court Tower, 175 W. Madison St.; confirm the building on your current notice. No justice court sits between the arrest and Superior Court in a Maricopa County felony.

City prosecutors still have a seat at the center, and the older city page says they work misdemeanor cases with investigators. If the same events also produce a misdemeanor under some other statute, such as assault, that count can be a separate City Court case while the felony moves downtown.

An arrest on a child abuse charge puts the person in the county system. The Sheriff's Office holds initial appearances on county charges at 2670 S. 28th Dr. in Phoenix, home of the Intake, Transfer and Release facility, every day of the year, and under Criminal Procedure Rule 4.1 that hearing must come within 24 hours of the arrest. The Sheriff's page warns that what is read there is an allegation no prosecutor has yet reviewed or accepted, and that the case may go back to the investigating agency if the County Attorney's Office does not proceed.

Release terms in these cases can reach into the home. Under A.R.S. 13-3967 a judge may restrict a person's travel, associates or place of residence while the case is open, and a no-contact condition may name the child in the complaint, siblings in the home or witnesses, which can decide who sleeps in the house. When the adult and child are connected in one of the ways A.R.S. 13-3601(A) lists, the complaint carries the DV letters, and a domestic violence arrest brings conditions meant to protect the alleged victim under A.R.S. 13-3601(I). Keep to every term precisely: no visits, calls or messages, and nothing passed through family, to any child or witness the terms protect, and no talk about the allegation with the child. Only a judge can loosen a term, and your lawyer can make that request.

Avoiding jail is not the same as avoiding a conviction. A.R.S. 41-1758.07 precludes a level I fingerprint clearance card for anyone awaiting trial on, or convicted of, child abuse, so a teacher, coach, nurse or child care worker can feel the charge long before any verdict. A felony conviction makes a person a prohibited possessor of firearms until that right is restored, and Arizona's set-aside statute excludes a dangerous offense and any felony in which the victim was under 15. A noncitizen should get immigration advice before any plea.