Sex Crimes Lawyer in Phoenix, AZ

Inside Phoenix, these investigations generally belong to detectives in the Phoenix Police Family Investigations Bureau, at 2120 N. Central Ave. Its Adult Sex Crimes Unit follows up on sexual assault, sexual abuse, sexually motivated kidnapping and indecent exposure. The Crimes Against Children Unit takes criminal allegations of child abuse, physical or sexual. The Internet Crimes Against Children Unit is part of a national network of coordinated task forces running proactive and forensic investigations, and a Family Investigations Cold Case Unit handles sexual assault reports still unsolved a year or more after they were made.

The work is often well along before the person under suspicion hears about it. Phoenix describes its response as a coordinated team from the City, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office and HonorHealth: sex crimes investigators, forensic nurse examiners, forensic scientists, prosecutors and victim advocates. Interviews, a medical forensic examination and lab requests can all come before a detective's first message to you.

That bureau shares 2120 N. Central Ave. with the city's Family Advocacy Center, which sits on the second floor and lists forensic medical examinations and investigative interviews among the services offered through its partners, HonorHealth forensic nurse examiners among them. A child's account is ordinarily taken in a recorded interview at an advocacy center, following a structured protocol, and the recording, the questions asked and any earlier conversations all deserve a careful defense review.

Under Arizona's one-party consent rule, a phone call or message exchange with the person who made the report can be recorded with police involved and without your knowledge, and anything said in it can later be played as evidence, including as an admission. If a call like that comes, end it courteously. Keep the allegation out of texts and social media, and do not reach out to the person or ask a friend or relative to.

Agreeing to an interview is optional, and asking for a lawyer before answering anything admits nothing. If detectives hold your phone or a warrant for your devices, talk with a lawyer before giving a passcode. Leave messages, photos and accounts in place, since erasing data can itself be found and used as evidence, and keep your own notes on dates, places and who was present for your lawyer alone.

Someone arrested sees a judge on 28th Drive at ITR, where Phoenix Police lists felony calendars at three-hour intervals, day and night; Arizona Rule of Criminal Procedure 4.1 makes 24 hours from arrest the outer limit. Release terms in sex offense cases commonly forbid contact with the reporting person, and can add an electronic monitor, restrictions on going online and restrictions on time with anyone under 18, sometimes including the person's own children. A request to change a term goes to the court. Pretrial Services, in the South Court Tower, handles the intakes, check-ins and monitoring.

Most sex offenses are felonies. The County Attorney's Office brings them in Superior Court downtown, where the right to counsel attaches. Either a grand jury returns an indictment, or a complaint is followed by a preliminary hearing; after that come arraignment, disclosure, motions and then a plea or a trial. When device extractions or expert reviews are involved, a year or more is not unusual.

Some cases stay out of Superior Court. Indecent exposure, when the person who saw it was 15 or older and there are no qualifying priors, is a class 1 misdemeanor, and a Phoenix Police case of that kind is generally heard at Phoenix Municipal Court, 300 W. Washington St. A city or justice court that convicts someone of indecent exposure has ten days to tell the arresting agency, which then makes the registration decision, and the sentencing judge can also order registration under § 13-3821(C).

Avoiding jail is not the same as avoiding a conviction. Many sex offense convictions require registration under A.R.S. § 13-3821, and a set-aside is not available for an offense that requires registration. A plea that avoids prison, or even a misdemeanor plea, can still bring registration questions, licensing limits and immigration consequences, so any proposed resolution has to be checked against the exact statute of conviction.

The report. An allegation can reach Phoenix Police through a 911 call, a direct report or a referral. For a minor, the city tells caregivers to report to law enforcement or the Arizona Department of Child Safety, and the age of the person and the type of allegation generally decide which unit takes it.

Parallel tracks. With a child involved, a child safety investigation, a family court case or an order of protection can move alongside the criminal case, and what is said in one can surface in another. They are often easier to manage as one problem.

The charging review. Detectives send the case to the County Attorney, which decides whether to charge and what to charge. That review can run for months while lab or device work is pending, and before it ends, defense counsel may be able to give the office records or context it lacks.

Superior Court. Felony hearings sit in Superior Court's downtown criminal complex. Confirm the building on your current notice. Disclosure can include recorded interviews, medical and lab records and device extraction reports, and independent experts are sometimes needed to review them.

The registration question. Registration follows the statute of conviction: mandatory for the offenses listed in § 13-3821(A), and left to the judge under § 13-3821(C) for other sexual offenses and sexual motivation findings. After a risk assessment, local law enforcement assigns a notification level. For Phoenix residents, the Police Department's Sex Offender Community Notification Unit investigates registration-related crimes and sends community notifications by U.S. Mail. The Sheriff's Office, for its part, evaluates registrants arriving in or relocating within its jurisdiction and holds determination hearings when a registrant asks for review.

The federal possibility. Some exploitation and online enticement cases are federal prosecutions, brought by the U.S. Attorney in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona at 401 W. Washington St. A search warrant is sometimes the first sign that a federal investigation exists.

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 sex offense 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, and conversations with our office are confidential.