SEX CRIMES DEFENSE

If you have been arrested for a sex offense in Maricopa County — or if a detective has called and asked you to “come in and clear this up” — the next few days will shape the rest of the case. Sex offense investigations in Arizona are built long before anyone is arrested. By the time you learn you are a suspect, the detective has usually already interviewed the accuser, and may already have a recorded phone call in which someone tried to get you to apologize.

You are allowed to say no. You are allowed to say, “I want a lawyer,” and stop. Doing that is not an admission of anything, and it is the single most useful thing most people in this position can do.

Nova Law Group defends people accused of sex offenses in the Maricopa County Superior Court and in municipal and justice courts across the Phoenix metro. These are among the hardest cases in Arizona criminal law, and they are among the few where the sentencing structure — not the facts alone — drives everything.

Sex offense charges under Arizona law

Arizona’s sexual offenses live in Chapter 14 of Title 13 of the Arizona Revised Statutes, with related offenses in Chapter 35.1. The classification of the charge, and the age of the person alleged to be the victim, determine almost everything about what a conviction would mean.

Two charges that sound similar can carry sentences a decade apart. That is why the first serious conversation in one of these cases is often not about whether you did something — it is about what the State can actually prove and which statute it fits under.

Dangerous crimes against children: the rule that changes everything

If the person alleged to be the victim was under fifteen, Arizona does not sentence the case under the ordinary felony ranges. It sentences under A.R.S. § 13-705, the dangerous crimes against children statute. Three features of that statute drive nearly every decision in these cases.

The ranges are far longer than ordinary felonies. A first-offense class 2 felony sentenced normally carries a presumptive term of five years. The same conduct sentenced as a first-degree dangerous crime against a child involving a twelve to fourteen year old carries a range of thirteen to twenty-seven years, with a presumptive term of twenty.

Sentences stack. Section 13-705 requires that a sentence for a dangerous crime against children run consecutively to any other sentence imposed at any time. In ordinary felony cases, multiple counts often run together. Here they do not. A charging decision that adds counts is, functionally, a decision to multiply the exposure.

Some counts carry life. Where the allegation involves sexual conduct with or sexual assault of a child under twelve, § 13-705 provides for life imprisonment with no release eligibility until at least thirty-five years have been served.

Because the counts stack and the ranges are long, the difference between a plea to one count and a plea to three is frequently the difference between a sentence a person can survive and one they cannot. Getting counts dismissed or reduced — not just winning at trial — is real defense work in these cases.

Sexual assault sentencing for adult complainants

Sexual assault under A.R.S. § 13-1406 is a class 2 felony, and a person convicted of it is not eligible for probation, suspension of sentence, or early release except as the statute allows. A first offense carries a range of 5.25 to 14 years, with a presumptive term of 7. A second felony conviction raises that to 7 to 21 years. If the State alleges the assault involved administering flunitrazepam, GHB, or ketamine without consent, the statute adds three years to each end of the range. And where the State proves an intentional infliction of serious physical injury, the statute permits life imprisonment with no release before twenty-five years.

Sex offender registration

Registration under A.R.S. § 13-3821 is a separate consequence, and for many people it is the one that lasts longest. The statute lists more than twenty qualifying offenses, including sexual assault, sexual conduct with a minor, molestation of a child, sexual abuse of a minor, continuous sexual abuse of a child, luring, sexual exploitation, and repeat indecent exposure or public sexual indecency violations.

Registration must happen within ten days of the conviction or adjudication, and a person who moves into an Arizona county and stays more than seventy-two hours must register there. For most qualifying offenses, registration lasts for life. A person adjudicated as a juvenile generally has the requirement terminate at age twenty-five.

Registration reaches where you can live, where you can work, and what shows up when anyone searches your name. Any conversation about resolving a sex offense case that does not include an honest discussion of whether the resolution triggers registration is an incomplete conversation.

How these investigations are actually built

Most people accused of a sex offense in Arizona are surprised by how much of the case was assembled before they knew it existed. A few methods come up again and again in Maricopa County.

The confrontation call. Arizona is a one-party consent state, which means a detective can record a phone call between the accuser and the suspect without telling the suspect. The accuser is coached to press for an apology or an acknowledgment. People who believe they are having a private, emotional conversation say things designed to calm the other person down — “I’m sorry you feel that way,” “I never meant to hurt you” — and those sentences are then played to a jury as admissions. If you get a call like this, the right move is to end it.

The forensic interview. Where a child is involved, the interview is usually conducted at an advocacy center under a structured protocol. Those interviews are recorded, and how they were conducted matters enormously. Leading questions, repeated interviews, and prior conversations with a parent before the interview are all legitimate subjects for cross-examination and for expert testimony on suggestibility.

Digital forensics. Exploitation and luring cases are largely digital cases. They turn on device extractions, hash-value matching, cloud account records, and IP attribution. The question of whether a particular person — as opposed to a particular device or account — possessed or sent something is a genuinely contested technical question, and it needs to be litigated as one.

Medical evidence. A sexual assault examination is often described to juries as if it settles the question. It usually does not. Findings are frequently non-specific, and the absence or presence of injury is consistent with a wide range of accounts. Getting the underlying records, not the summary, is the starting point.

Defenses that matter in Arizona sex offense cases

Every case is different, and no lawyer can tell you what will work before reading the disclosure. But the arguments that do real work in these cases tend to fall into a few categories.

It did not happen. False and mistaken allegations exist, and they arise in identifiable contexts — contested custody, a relationship ending badly, a teenager caught in something and asked to explain it. Documenting the timeline and the motive is slow work and it is often the work that matters.

Consent, where consent is legally available. Where the complainant is an adult, lack of consent is an element the State has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. Where the complainant is a minor, or where the accused held a position of trust over a fifteen to seventeen year old, Arizona does not allow consent as a defense — and understanding which rule applies is essential before anyone builds a theory of the case.

The charge does not fit the conduct. Many of these statutes turn on precise definitions — “sexual contact,” “sexual intercourse or oral sexual contact,” “exploitive exhibition.” Whether the alleged conduct actually falls inside the statute charged, or inside a materially less serious one, is often the highest-value fight in the case.

How the evidence was obtained. Warrantless device searches, overbroad warrants, statements taken after a request for counsel, and interviews conducted in custody without Miranda warnings all produce suppression issues. Evidence that is kept out cannot be used.

What to do right now

If you are under investigation and have not been arrested, do not agree to an interview and do not try to explain. If a detective has your phone, do not give a passcode without talking to a lawyer first. Do not contact the accuser, and do not have anyone contact the accuser for you — in a case with a release condition or an order of protection, that contact is a new criminal charge on top of the one you already have.

Write down what you remember while it is fresh: dates, times, who else was present, where you were. Preserve messages and call logs rather than deleting them; deletion is discoverable and it looks like exactly what the State will argue it is.

Then call a lawyer. Being accused of a sex offense in Arizona is not the same as being convicted of one, and the space between those two things is where a defense gets built.

Where these cases are heard

Felony sex offenses in the Phoenix metro are prosecuted by the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office and heard in the Maricopa County Superior Court. A case typically begins with either a grand jury indictment or a complaint and preliminary hearing, followed by arraignment, a period of disclosure and pretrial motions, and then either a resolution or trial. Misdemeanor-level offenses such as a first indecent exposure charge are handled in the municipal court of the city where the alleged conduct occurred or in the appropriate justice court.

Release conditions are set early and matter a great deal. In sex offense cases those conditions routinely include no contact with the accuser, electronic monitoring, restrictions on internet use, and restrictions on contact with minors, including in some cases the accused person’s own children. Those conditions can be litigated, and they should be.

Common questions

The accuser wants to drop the charges. Does that end the case? No. The charging decision belongs to the State, not to the accuser. A recantation is significant evidence and it changes the strength of the case, but prosecutors frequently proceed anyway, particularly where there is a recorded statement or a confrontation call. What a recantation does is create leverage — and how that leverage is used is a strategic decision that should be made with counsel.

Is a first offense probation-eligible? It depends entirely on the statute charged. Sexual assault under § 13-1406 is not probation-eligible. Neither are most offenses sentenced as dangerous crimes against children. Sexual abuse of an adult complainant, a first indecent exposure charge, and certain offenses involving a fifteen to seventeen year old can be. This is one of the first questions worth answering in any case, because it defines the realistic range of outcomes.

What is a “position of trust”? Arizona treats an accused person who stood in a position of trust toward a fifteen to seventeen year old far more seriously than one who did not — the same conduct can move from a class 6 felony to a class 2. Teachers, coaches, clergy, stepparents, and others with authority over the minor are the typical examples, and whether the relationship qualifies is often genuinely contestable.

Will a conviction require registration? Many, but not all, sex offense convictions trigger lifetime registration under § 13-3821. Because registration follows the specific statute of conviction, a plea to a different offense can sometimes avoid it entirely. That is a central reason plea negotiation in these cases is technical work rather than simple bargaining.

How long will this take? Felony sex offense cases in Maricopa County commonly take a year or more, and cases involving significant digital forensics take longer. That is frustrating, but time is frequently the defense’s ally: it allows for independent expert review, investigation of the accuser’s account, and the development of motions that reshape what a jury will ever hear.

No lawyer can promise you a particular result, and you should be skeptical of anyone who does. What we can tell you is what the State has to prove, what it appears able to prove, and what the realistic range of outcomes looks like — before you make any decision.

Related pages that often matter in these cases: what happens after an arrest explains the process from booking through arraignment, felony defense covers how Arizona classes and sentences felonies, and record sealing and set-asides explains which convictions can and cannot be cleared later. If the allegation arose from a domestic relationship, see domestic violence. If federal agents are involved, see federal charges.