Preventing Use of a Telephone in an Emergency (A.R.S. § 13-2915)

Most people charged under A.R.S. § 13-2915 have never heard of it before the citation is in their hand. The statute is titled “preventing use of telephone in emergency,” and in practice it is charged after a domestic argument in which one person is alleged to have taken, blocked or knocked away the other person’s phone.

It is a class 2 misdemeanor, which makes it the least serious criminal classification most people will encounter. That is not the reason to take it seriously. The reason is what rides along with it.

What the Statute Prohibits

Section 13-2915(A) makes it unlawful to knowingly do any of three things:

1. Refuse to yield or surrender the use of a party line to another person who needs it to report a fire or summon police, medical or other aid in an emergency
2. Ask for or request the use of a party line on the pretext that an emergency exists, knowing that no emergency in fact exists
3. Intentionally prevent or interfere with the use of a telephone by another person in an emergency situation

The first two paragraphs are relics. Party lines — shared residential telephone circuits — have essentially disappeared. Paragraph 3 is the one that gets charged, and it is written broadly enough to reach a cell phone taken out of someone’s hand.

The statute also makes clear that nobody is required to allow another person into their home to use a telephone during an emergency.

Why a Class 2 Misdemeanor Matters More Than It Looks

Under A.R.S. § 13-3601, § 13-2915 subsection A paragraph 3 is one of the enumerated offenses that can be designated a domestic violence offense when the people involved are in a qualifying relationship — spouses or former spouses, people in the same household, people with a child in common, relatives, or people in a current or former romantic relationship.

That designation is the whole ballgame. A domestic violence conviction affects firearm rights, including under federal law. It commonly results in an order to complete a domestic violence offender treatment program. It surfaces in family court, in employment screening, and in professional licensing. And because this charge so often accompanies a disorderly conduct or assault allegation arising from the same incident, it is frequently the count that survives when the more serious charge does not — which means the domestic violence designation survives with it.

People sometimes accept a plea to this charge precisely because it sounds trivial. It is worth understanding what is being accepted.

Where These Cases Are Contested

Was there an emergency? The statute requires an emergency situation. An argument, however heated, is not automatically an emergency. If nobody was injured, nobody was in danger, and no call to 911 was actually underway or imminent, the element is genuinely in dispute. This is the most commonly contested part of the charge.

Was the interference intentional? Paragraph 3 requires intentional prevention or interference. A phone knocked out of a hand during a mutual struggle, a phone taken because it was the defendant’s own phone, or a phone picked up off a table without any awareness that a call was being placed are not the same thing as intentionally stopping someone from summoning help.

Whose phone was it? Ownership does not settle the question, but it matters. Taking back your own device is a materially different fact pattern than seizing someone else’s to stop them calling for aid.

Was a call actually prevented? Where another phone was available, where a call went through anyway, or where police were contacted moments later without difficulty, the alleged interference may not have prevented anything.

Does the relationship qualify? If the domestic violence designation is the real exposure, whether the relationship meets the statutory definition is worth examining rather than assuming.

How It Usually Arrives

This charge rarely comes alone. It typically appears alongside disorderly conduct, assault, or criminal damage arising from the same call. Understanding how the counts relate matters, because the negotiation is often about which count remains and whether it carries the domestic violence designation — not simply about the sentence.

Talk to Nova Law Group

Nova Law Group defends domestic violence and related charges throughout Arizona, in municipal, justice and superior courts. If you have been charged under § 13-2915, the classification is the least important thing on the paperwork.

Call (480) 405-6767 for a free, confidential consultation.

Related: Domestic Violence Defense · Disorderly Conduct (A.R.S. 13-2904) · Assault Charges · Arizona Courts