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Statute of Limitations in Arizona for Criminal Charges - YouTube
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in some situations the police will
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respond to an incident they will process
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somebody they will make an arrest they
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may drop blood they may do interviews
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but they won't actually charge somebody
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or file formal charges so that person
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will end up leaving police custody
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without any paperwork they won't have a
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court date they won't have an MVD notice
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they won't have any idea what's actually
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happening this is more common than
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people think and people will call our
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office and they'll say hey this whole
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thing happened I was just processed by
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the police but I don't know what to do
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about this this can happen in many
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situations where the police are
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continuing their investigation they're
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either doing some chemical testing on a
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blood sample they're testing some
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contraband they're doing interviews with
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other people who may or may not
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corroborate what actually happened
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during a 9-1-1 call there's a lot of
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different reasons why the police can do
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an investigation but not have enough
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evidence to actually file charges and
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they want to continue their
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investigation we see this a lot in DUI
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cases where the blood results may take
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some time to be tested
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then charges can be filed at a later
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date so the question then becomes how
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long do police have does the
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prosecutor's office have that do the
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does the government have in order to
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actually bring those charges against an
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individual can they just sit out there
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forever the answer is no in law there's
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a concept it's called the statute of
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limitations this means that the
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government has to bring charges within a
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certain period of time or else they
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can't do it any longer and so it's
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different for two different categories
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or classifications of crimes
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misdemeanors have a much shorter statute
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of limitations and felonies have a much
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longer period of time so in other words
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for misdemeanor cases they can't wait
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and wait and wait and wait they have to
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bring charges much more quickly whereas
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under a felony case if you're going to
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be charged as a felony they have a lot
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longer period of time and so let's say
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something happened on day one in under a
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misdemeanor case they have up to one
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year from that day so one year all the
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way around from the date of the incident
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from the date of the incident they have
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one year so one year that's the statute
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of limitations if they wait a year in a
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day from the date of that incident so if
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it happened today we waited one
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later the the following day they could
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not bring any more charges they could
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not file charges against that person
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because the statute of limitations
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expired it's much much longer in felony
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cases this is the date of the incident
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plus seven years and felonies can be a
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little bit more complicated there are
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some other exceptions that really don't
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have statute of limitations they go on
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much much longer from the actual date of
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the incident generally this involves
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some sex crimes and and and things like
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that but it's for most felonies it's
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seven years and so it's you can see it's
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a much much longer period of time and
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it's important to know that we've got in
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many cases dismissed on that regard so
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sometimes people will report late
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prosecutors offices will just forget
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about filing charges they will put it on
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their calendar they'll file a day late
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or two days late we've gotten cases
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dismissed literally because the charges
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were filed just a day late or two days
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late they they don't do that often but
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it is something that's important but
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really why this is more important as it
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helps give people a little bit of
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closure that way you know that you're
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not going to be waiting around forever
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and ever and ever especially if it's a
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misdemeanor case if if the cases
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progresses past a certain period of time
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say for example we know that blood is
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generally tested in three months the
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case hasn't been filed in six months it
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may be less likely that that charge is
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getting filed if it's going nine months
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even even better odds if it goes a year
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and a day they can no longer file
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charges against you anymore and so that
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case is closed
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felonies are obviously a little longer
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seven years is a very long time to wait
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but you also can have kind of the same
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process you can have the same idea of
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whether or not these charges are going
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to be filed if you're in this situation
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that doesn't mean that you have to just
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sit around and wait you can be proactive
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about it we help people through this
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process all the time we do what's called
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an investigation so we don't have to sit
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around and wait until charges are
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formally filed we can go and start
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getting police reports or accident
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reports we can contact the prosecutor's
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office or the charging Bureau with the
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County Attorney's Office and communicate
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with them and say hey what's going on we
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know this incident happened we believe
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that there's no evidence to support a
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formal charges being filed and so we can
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open up that dialogue and maybe even
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prevent charges from being
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filed and get some closure on the case
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prior to having to wait all this
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additional time so I hope this helps
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explain that it's something that for
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most people the vast majority of cases
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you're not gonna be waiting around for
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the rest of your lives to see if they
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file charges it has to be brought for
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misdemeanor cases and like I said
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earlier in most situations its DUI cases
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and domestic violence cases have to be
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brought within one year
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felonies it's seven years unless it's
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kind of one of those exceptions it's a
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sex crime or an underage crime or
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something like that hope that helps if
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you have questions about it and want to
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speak to our office speak to our team
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speak to myself about it give us a call
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we offer free case evaluation so we can
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help you through it thanks for watching
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