Aggravated Assault Lawyer in Chandler, AZ

Chandler's City Prosecutor's Office takes criminal misdemeanors to City Court and nothing above them. Once a Chandler Police report alleges aggravated assault, the charging decision belongs to the County Attorney for Maricopa County. Certain state felonies are brought by the Arizona Attorney General's Office, often where a state agency ran the investigation, the conduct reached into more than one county, or a referral came from the county attorney. We handle these matters whichever office brought the charge.

The gap between a misdemeanor and this felony is one line in the charging document. Aggravated assault is a felony because the State has alleged one of the circumstances listed in A.R.S. 13-1204. Frequent examples are a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument, serious physical injury, a fractured bone, disfigurement that is temporary but substantial, or a victim covered by reason of their work, such as a peace officer. Strike the circumstance and a misdemeanor is left, which in Chandler is a city court matter: Chandler assault.

Detectives may take over from patrol. The Chandler Police Divisions page lists a Robbery and Homicide Unit, a Family Crimes Unit for family related crime, and a Criminal Apprehension Unit that looks for people wanted on felonies. The department's Forensic Services Section "is an internationally accredited forensic testing laboratory" whose listed work includes latent prints and crime scene response. Which detectives and which lab touched a particular case is something the reports show, and we read them for exactly that.

After a felony arrest, the first deadline is short. Chandler Police has detention officers who transport people in custody, and anyone the county jail books on a felony charge goes before a judge at the Initial Appearance Court the county runs. According to the Sheriff's Office, that court is at 2670 S. 28th Dr. (follow the signs for Intake, Transfer and Release) and sits every day of the year, holidays too. Rule 4.1 allows 24 hours between arrest and that hearing; past that, the person is released. On a felony, counsel attaches, and you remain free to hire your own lawyer at any stage.

Release terms come home with you. Under A.R.S. 13-3967 a judge can restrict where you travel and forbid you to possess a deadly weapon for as long as the case lasts, and some charges bring an order of no contact with the alleged victim. Each term binds from the moment the order is signed.

Not every case is charged at once. Chandler officers can finish a report and send it to the County Attorney, whose Pretrial Division, the office says, "oversees intake, charging and preliminary hearings." Quiet weeks may mean the review is still open, and that is time a defense lawyer can use to collect evidence.

Watch for the word dangerous. Arizona uses it for an offense in which a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument was discharged, used or exhibited as a threat, or in which serious physical injury was inflicted intentionally or knowingly. A dangerous sentence under 13-704 means prison, but only when the allegation is charged and then admitted or found by the trier of fact. The allegation is its own contest, with its own proof.

Avoiding jail is not the same as avoiding a conviction. A felony conviction makes a person a prohibited possessor under 13-3101 until the right to have firearms is restored, and federal law separately bars possession after a conviction punishable by more than one year. Section 13-905 shuts a dangerous offense out of set-aside. Under 13-603(C) the court must order restitution in the full amount of the victim's economic loss. Anyone who is not a U.S. citizen should speak with an immigration lawyer before any plea.