Legal Question in Criminal Law in Arizona

Why would Az prosecute a first offender who had a traffic accident (someone was hurt) . The blood alcohol content was not high enough to be a dui so they dropped it. A year later the prosecuter Louis Caputo charged him with an aggraved assult. He was put in prison for 3-5 years. He has owned and ooperated a busimess in Az for 30 years empl;oying 30 people. Now his business is failing. Is this justice?


Asked on 2/14/12, 7:36 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Jeremy Claridge Byrne & Benesch

Justice is relative. There are two things that I want to draw your attention to in reference to the facts as you presented. One: DUI is a misdemeanor with a statute of limitations of 1 year. Two: aggravated assault is a felony with a statute of limiations of 7 years. Just because the prosecutor did not file on the DUI doesn't mean that he didn't feel that justice warranted some action against the individual. Our justice system can be very arbitrarty according to the singular design of the administrator of justice who is assigned the case. As a prosecutor (former) I tried to be fair and yet still hold people accountable. We can only hope that Mr. Caputo doesn't have political reasons motivating what should be an even-handed administration of justice.

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Answered on 2/14/12, 8:21 am


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