Legal Question in Criminal Law in Arizona

Me and my boyfriend got into a fight. He hit me first and so I hit him back and we started a physical altercation. After about a 1 minuet I threatened to call the police and press charges and he stopped. He then called the police and they came and talked to both of us. He lied to the police and said I had hit him first. After the incident I was so nervous and shaken up that my words coming out when I was trying to explain what happened to the officer were broken and so the cop took that as being untruthful. We were both arrested and locked up for 24hrs with no phone call and our rights were not read to me. Its says in the police report that the arresting officer gave us a pamphlet on our rights but neither of us received this pamphlet. What should I do? Whats the possible outcome of going to trial?


Asked on 8/31/13, 5:58 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

This not uncommon. It seems you were probably charged as a domestic violence case, either assault or disorderly conduct, since both of you were taken into custody. The law allows for the arrest of the offending person in order to prevent further harm. It was not necessary for both of you to be arrested in this situation.

Here you are both charged and are both victims of each others harm. It would be expected that each of you will testify against one another at trial in order to convict.

As to the victim's rights pamphlet, the Arizona Attorney General has a victim's rights office to oversee compliance with Arizona's constitution and statutes regarding victim rights.

Read more
Answered on 9/01/13, 12:02 pm


Related Questions & Answers

More Criminal Law questions and answers in Arizona