Aggravated Assault Lawyer in Phoenix, AZ

Inside Phoenix, a patrol officer usually writes the first report and a detective takes it from there. The Violent Crimes Bureau names aggravated assault among the crimes it investigates, and its Assaults Unit publishes an offense list that includes aggravated assault and aggravated assault on police officers. That unit works mostly daytime hours with detectives on callout around the clock, so the follow-up can come the same night or days later. When the people involved are partners or relatives, the Family Investigations Bureau's Domestic Violence Unit may handle it instead.

No version of this charge belongs to the City of Phoenix. Aggravated assault is a felony because the State has alleged one of the circumstances listed in A.R.S. § 13-1204, and the Phoenix Police victim rights pamphlet names the Maricopa County Attorney's Office as the prosecuting agency on felony charges. Sometimes a complaint follows the arrest right away. Other times detectives send the County Attorney a report, and the charging decision comes later, after hospital records and lab results arrive.

After a felony booking, the first hearing happens at 2670 S. 28th Dr., in the county's Intake, Transfer and Release building (ITR). Phoenix Police lists felony calendars there at 2:00, 5:00, 8:00 and 11:00, a.m. and p.m., and Arizona Rule of Criminal Procedure 4.1 allows no more than 24 hours from arrest to that appearance before the person must be released. Before the judge rules, probation officers from Adult Probation's Initial Appearance Unit give the court a criminal history and a Public Safety Assessment, a validated tool that estimates the risk of a new offense and the likelihood of returning to court.

The release order from that hearing is binding the moment it issues. Adult Probation says people released to Pretrial Services can be ordered into drug and alcohol testing, told to have no contact with the alleged victim and to stay away from the alleged crime scene, and in some cases fitted with an ankle monitor that tracks their movements. Under A.R.S. § 13-3967 a judge can also bar possession of deadly weapons while the case is open, which matters to anyone who keeps a firearm at home or in a vehicle.

A secured bond, if one is set, can be posted only in person with the Sheriff's Office at the Fourth Avenue Jail Bond and Fine Room, 201 S. 4th Ave., according to the Superior Court. Electronic transfers are not accepted, and release processing after payment may take up to 24 hours.

Counsel attaches on any felony, this one included. Much of what shapes the outcome runs on other schedules, though: the County Attorney's charging review, the detective's records requests, and apartment, business and doorbell video that private systems can record over. We ask for preservation in the first days.

One allegation deserves early attention: dangerousness. When an aggravated assault is charged as a dangerous offense under A.R.S. § 13-704 and the allegation is admitted or found, prison is mandatory and probation is gone. Because that allegation is charged and proven separately, it can be contested on its own, and the first weeks are the time to start.

Avoiding jail is not the same as avoiding a conviction. A felony aggravated assault conviction makes a person a prohibited possessor under A.R.S. § 13-3101 unless the right is restored, and federal law adds its own firearm bar. A set-aside is not available for a dangerous offense, and dangerous and serious offenses cannot be sealed. On any conviction the court must order restitution for the full economic loss. A plea that keeps someone out of prison can still follow them for years, into job applications, licensing reviews and, for anyone who is not a U.S. citizen, immigration decisions.

The first hour. Officers separate the people involved, photograph injuries and collect statements, and body-worn cameras often capture much of it. Whatever is said at the scene can be quoted in the charging review. Arizona recognizes justification: under A.R.S. § 13-404 a person may use physical force to the degree a reasonable person would believe immediately necessary against unlawful force, and § 13-405 allows deadly force in narrower situations. When some evidence of justification is in the case, § 13-205 makes the State carry the burden of disproving it. That account tends to carry more weight once the video has been reviewed.

The detective's follow-up. An Assaults Unit detective may request hospital records, interview witnesses, look for cameras along the block and reach out to the person named as a suspect. You can decline an interview and ask that the detective contact your lawyer. The law gives you that choice, and using it is not an admission.

Into Superior Court. The County Attorney brings the case in by grand jury indictment or by a complaint followed by a preliminary hearing. Hearings take place in one of two downtown buildings: the Central Court Building at 201 W. Jefferson St., or the South Court Tower at 175 W. Madison St. Confirm the building on your current notice. The Central Court Building's public entrance faces north, and an escalator inside leads to the South Court Tower. The court lists free public parking between 5th and 6th Avenues, plus paid garages at CityScape, Luhrs City Center and the city garage at 300 W. Jefferson St. In Maricopa County, no felony detours through a justice court on its way there.

Pretrial supervision. Pretrial Services Supervision sits on the 3rd floor of the South Court Tower, Suite 3306, and handles pretrial intakes, electronic monitoring and check-ins. Treat each reporting instruction like a court date. A missed check-in, or a text to the person named in the release order, can create a second problem that is harder to fix than the first.

The injury and the instrument. Two definitions in A.R.S. § 13-105 decide many of these cases. Serious physical injury is defined to include an injury creating a reasonable risk of death, and also disfigurement that is serious and permanent, serious impairment of health, or lasting loss or impairment of how an organ or limb works. A dangerous instrument is anything that, given how it was used or threatened, is readily capable of causing death or serious physical injury. We read the full chart, the imaging and the follow-up visits rather than the one-line summary in a report.

Nova Law Group was built by Ryan Tait, a former Maricopa County Attorney's Office felony prosecutor. The practice is criminal defense first. We keep caseloads deliberately low, which means the lawyers on your case have time to actually watch the video and read the reports line by line. We take aggravated assault cases to trial when trial is the right pressure. Overcharging happens, and a case that is genuinely prepared for trial changes the conversation with the prosecutor. Most criminal cases are quoted as a flat fee. Consultations are free and confidential.

Office: 4455 E. Camelback Rd., Suite C250, Phoenix, AZ 85018. Meetings are by appointment.