Legal Question in Criminal Law in Arizona

I am not sure if I have the correct area of law, but my issue is as follows:

I am prior military, so I was issued dog tags during service. I left my dog tags at my fiance's house. Her ex-husband is a City Police officer, and he STOLE my tags (he is trying to gether information on me, and the tag has my name and social security number). We KNOW it was him and have already addressed it with him and are expecting it back ASAP, but my question is: What kind of charges could I press against him, if any at all (IF he doesn't return them)?

I'm asking so I know if I should retain a lawyer (IF there ARE charges that I could press).

I FEEL like stealing something with a person's name attached to their social is serious offense. Borderlining identity theft, especially knowing that he is attempting to collect personally identifiable information. Also, being that it is a federal government (military) issued item (which in my mind, makes it a form of government ID.), I feel like that also pushes the envelope towards being some sort of serious offense. Would it be a federal offense? Would it be a felony or misdemeanor? Or is it something much less than I am thinking, and really no bid issue at all?


Asked on 11/26/12, 7:52 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Taking property of another without permission with the intent to deprive that person of the property is theft. Whether the information obtained was used for a fraudulent purpose for prosecution of identity theft depends how the information was used, if at all.

Police officers generally have a duty not to use their position for personal reasons. A complaint to the police department might be in order if the police officer is conducting an investigation of you for his pesronal reasons.

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Answered on 11/28/12, 9:15 am


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