Auto Theft Lawyer in Tempe, AZ

Tempe lets residents file many property reports online, including theft from a motor vehicle and theft of motor vehicle parts. A whole stolen vehicle is not on that list, and neither is anything that happened at Arizona State University. So when a car itself goes missing in Tempe, the owner generally deals with the department directly, and the report comes with paperwork.

That paperwork is the Stolen Vehicle Affidavit, which Tempe Police post on their forms page in English and in Spanish. Arizona law requires it. Under A.R.S. 13-1814(C), whoever reports a vehicle theft must sign an affidavit supplied by the police; a report not taken in person calls for a notarized affidavit mailed or delivered within seven days. If the agency has not received the signed, notarized affidavit within thirty days of the first report, the vehicle's entry is taken out of the national and Arizona criminal justice databases. The affidavit must also warn that a false report of vehicle theft may be prosecuted.

For a defendant, the affidavit is often the first document worth getting. A partner, parent or former roommate who reported in anger may never have signed one, or may have signed one that says nothing about the months you drove the car with their blessing. What it says, and what it leaves out, can shape how a prosecutor reads the rest of the report.

Follow-up work sits in the department's Investigations Division. Its Major Crimes Section lists a Property Crimes Unit, though the city's page does not describe what that unit handles. Its Technical Services Bureau lists a Crime Analysis and Intel Center that studies crime patterns, a Forensic Services Unit that collects and analyzes evidence, and a Property and Evidence unit that holds what officers seize under chain of custody. A recovered car can be processed for prints, and a phone or a set of keys found inside can be booked and kept for the case.

Lenders and repossession agents have their own Tempe rules. When a financed car has been impounded, the Vehicle Impound Unit's lienholder page says the lender must be the lienholder of record with MVD and must bring either a notarized MVD Affidavit of Repossession or a court Writ of Replevin, with notarized supporting letters. A dispute over late payments can sound like theft in a phone call to police, but the paperwork a lender has, or lacks, can tell a different story.

Every charge on this page skips the city court. A.R.S. 13-1814(D) makes theft of means of transportation a class 3 felony. Unlawful use under A.R.S. 13-1803 is a class 5 felony for taking unauthorized control and a class 6 felony for riding in a vehicle you knew or had reason to know someone else held unlawfully. Keeping a rental car past the deadline in A.R.S. 13-1806 is a class 5 felony. The Tempe City Attorney's Criminal Division prosecutes misdemeanors only, so these cases go to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office in most instances, or to the Arizona Attorney General's Office when, for example, a state agency led the investigation or the conduct reached past Maricopa County. We handle these matters whichever office brought the charge.

A person booked into the county jail on a vehicle felony sees a judge first at the Intake, Transfer and Release facility, 2670 S. 28th Dr., Phoenix. Rule 4.1 sets 24 hours from arrest as the limit for that initial appearance, and the judge there decides release terms, which can include conditions about the vehicle or the owner. Later hearings are held in Superior Court downtown, 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.

Avoiding jail is not the same as avoiding a conviction. Any felony conviction makes a person a prohibited possessor of firearms under A.R.S. 13-3101 until the right is restored, and federal law adds a separate bar. A.R.S. 13-603(C) attaches a restitution order to a conviction, measured by the economic loss the court finds, which can cover damage to the car. Delivery, rideshare and dealership employers can screen for vehicle offenses, and anyone who is not a U.S. citizen should talk to an immigration lawyer before accepting a plea.