Child Abuse Lawyer in Mesa, AZ

Inside city limits, a child abuse report is generally followed up by the Mesa Police Special Victims Unit. The department puts child abuse on that unit's list beside sexual assault, elder abuse and missing persons, and describes detectives with specialized training who collect forensic evidence, question the people involved and bring cases to prosecutors. Patrol officers often take the first call, but the detective who later asks for your side usually comes from this unit.

The unit works out of the Mesa Family Advocacy Center, which Mesa Police lead. The Department of Child Safety and its Office of Child Welfare Investigations provide on-site services there, and Phoenix Children's Hospital supplies medical care at any hour for children in physical and sexual abuse cases. Exam findings and clinicians' notes from the center can carry great weight, so we ask for the full medical record rather than a report's summary.

The center's page also describes a joint commitment by the County Attorney and the Mesa City Prosecutor to misdemeanor and felony child physical abuse cases. The statute charged decides which office takes a count. A.R.S. § 13-3623 makes every version of the offense a felony, and Mesa's City Prosecutor handles misdemeanors and city code violations, with felonies going to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office. A related count under a different statute, a misdemeanor assault for example, can stay with the City Prosecutor (Suite 222, 250 E. 1st Ave.) and be heard at Mesa Municipal Court while the child abuse count moves on.

On the county side, child abuse falls to the Family Violence Bureau, which lists it with domestic violence and vulnerable adult abuse among the cases it prosecutes, child abuse homicides included. The felony reaches Superior Court by one of two routes: a grand jury indictment, or a direct complaint tested at a preliminary hearing. Mesa felonies go to downtown Phoenix for trial, to either the South Court Tower (175 W. Madison St.) or the Central Court Building (201 W. Jefferson St.), so confirm the building on your current notice.

An arrest begins at the Mesa Police holding facility. Child abuse is not a City of Mesa charge, so the holding facility page sends the person on to the county's Intake, Transfer and Release center (ITR), run by the Sheriff at 2670 S. 28th Dr. in Phoenix. Rule 4.1 sets a 24-hour limit for the initial appearance. The Sheriff's Office notes that the allegations read there are not yet reviewed or accepted by a prosecutor. Before ruling on release, the judge receives a Public Safety Assessment from Adult Probation's Initial Appearance Unit, which rates the person's risk of reoffending and of failing to appear.

Adult Probation lists the terms that can follow: Pretrial Services supervision, drug and alcohol testing, an ankle monitor and specific no-contact orders for alleged victims. Here a no-contact term can cover the child, other children in the home or a witness, and it can settle who stays in the house while the case is open. Obey each term to the letter. Do not reach out to a child or witness the order protects, whether in person, by phone, online or through a relative, and leave the allegation out of every conversation with the child. A judge can change a condition when your lawyer asks; a family agreement cannot.

Plenty of Mesa investigations reach the County Attorney without any arrest. The prosecutor reviewing the report has several choices: more investigation, no charge, a referral elsewhere, or a complaint or indictment. While that review is open, a lawyer can collect pediatric records, day care sign-in sheets and the names of every adult who had the child, and sometimes put that material before the prosecutor.

When the accused adult and the child are related or share a household, the charge can carry a domestic violence designation, because A.R.S. § 13-3601(A) includes § 13-3623 among the offenses it lists. Look for the letters DV on the complaint. A domestic violence arrest brings release conditions written to protect the alleged victim.

Avoiding jail is not the same as avoiding a conviction. Under A.R.S. § 41-1758.07, a person awaiting trial on or convicted of child abuse is precluded from receiving a level I fingerprint clearance card, so the pending charge alone can reach a job or license that needs one. A felony conviction makes a person a prohibited possessor of firearms until that right is restored, and Arizona's set-aside statute does not apply to a dangerous offense or to a felony in which the victim was under 15. Anyone who is not a U.S. citizen should get immigration advice before any plea.