Child Abuse Lawyer in Tempe, AZ

A Tempe report about a child generally starts with a patrol officer and moves to detectives in the Investigations Division. Its Major Crimes Section lists a Family Crimes unit and a Special Victims Unit. The Special Victims Unit's own page says it handles sexual offenses against children and adults; the Family Crimes unit is listed by name without a description. Which detective calls you usually depends on what the report alleges, and the business card or voicemail will tell us. On Arizona State University property, ASU Police, which holds original jurisdiction over Board of Regents land, may be the investigating agency.

Two investigations often run at once. A single report can open both a police case and a Department of Child Safety investigation of the same home. If DCS asks a court to intervene, that dependency matter goes to the Superior Court's Juvenile Department, with its own judges, lawyers and deadlines. The two tracks are separate, but statements made in one can appear in the other.

The city prosecutors do not handle this charge. The Tempe City Attorney's Criminal Division prosecutes misdemeanors in Tempe Municipal Court, and every version of A.R.S. 13-3623 is a felony. The charging decision generally belongs to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, whose Family Violence Bureau describes its work as prosecuting domestic violence cases, including child abuse offenses committed in the county. A felony case reaches Superior Court by grand jury indictment or by a complaint that a judge reviews at a preliminary hearing, without a stop at any justice court.

Weeks can pass before a charge. While detectives collect medical records and interviews, a lawyer can assemble pediatric records, school or child care attendance, and a list of every adult who looked after the child during the relevant period, and sometimes present them to the reviewing prosecutor before a decision is made.

A person booked into the county jail on a felony goes before a judge at the Intake, Transfer and Release facility, 2670 S. 28th Dr., and Rule 4.1 requires that hearing within 24 hours of arrest. Adult Probation supplies the judge with a record check and a risk assessment. Here, conditions may bar contact with the named child or with witnesses, and that alone can decide which home you live in until the case ends. Pretrial Services, located in the South Court Tower, handles check-ins and any monitoring the judge orders.

Follow every term to the letter. Do not contact a child, parent or witness the order covers, whether in person, by phone or message, or through another person, and do not talk with the child about the allegation. A condition changes only when the judge changes it, on a motion your lawyer brings; an agreement within the family has no effect on the order.

When the people involved are related or share a home, child abuse is one of the offenses that can carry a domestic violence designation under A.R.S. 13-3601(A). That label brings release terms of its own and can matter long after the case ends.

Diversion is a prosecutor's decision. The County Attorney's published felony diversion policy (Procedure 17.2, revised August 2025) excludes domestic violence cases, with a narrow exception for a child negligently left in a car where there was no serious physical injury. Whether any case qualifies is up to the prosecutor.

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