With the rise of social media and the prevalence of smartphones, we are finding that people are becoming braver when it comes to their interaction with police officers
It’s no surprise that police officers often times use excessive force and abuse their power. Drinking alcohol and going to the bars and clubs in Scottsdale go hand-in-hand. Every week we get hired by approximately 10 people for various types of offenses that take place in and around the Scottsdale nightclub district. In terms of our experience handling cases in Scottsdale, we are at the Scottsdale court nearly every day of the week and handle hundreds of Scottsdale cases every year.
Element-Based Offense
One of the offenses that we represent people for on a very regular basis is resisting arrest. Resisting arrest is not what we call an element based offense. An element-based offense means the prosecutor or the police officer have to see certain things that a person does in order to charge them with an offense. For example, a DUI requires two elements. The first element is driving and the second element is being impaired by either drugs or alcohol. For resisting arrest, an officer just has to allege that a subject simply resisted arrest. Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the person was getting handcuffed and being unruly, this could really mean that an officer was trying to question somebody and the person ran away or maybe did something that another officer would not consider to be resisting. Police officers are human, and therefore, have individual beliefs. What one police officer considers to be resisting, another may not.
Let Us Defend Your Case
What will happen if you are charged with resisting arrest in Scottsdale?
There are several different possibilities. If the facts of your case are egregious, the prosecutor could ask for jail time and probation. My advice to anybody charged with resisting arrest is to hire an attorney. If you think about what’s at stake, it’s not worth trying to save a little bit of money by handling the case on your own. Chances are, you have never been to Scottsdale Court. On the other hand, our lawyers have been Scottsdale court thousands of times. We know exactly how to handle resisting arrest cases in Scottsdale.
As soon as we are hired to defend your case, we will request the police report, any video associated with the incident, and schedule interviews with the arresting police officer. You would be surprised how much information we can ascertain by watching the videos and interviewing the officers. It is not uncommon for the videos to reveal facts that were not noted by the police officer in the report. We can use this evidence as a way of having your case dismissed or reduced.
If you’ve been cited or arrested for resisting arrest in Scottsdale, please call our office for a free case evaluation. I guarantee after having a discussion with one of our lawyers, you will feel extremely confident about the situation and know you will have a team of attorneys fighting to provide you with the best possible outcome. Please call us at 480-608-9998.
Author Bio
Matthew L. Lopez
Matthew L. Lopez is the Managing Attorney and founder of Matthew Lopez Law, a criminal defense and DUI firm serving clients throughout Arizona. His track record of case dismissals and charge reductions has earned him honors, including a National Trial Lawyers Top 40 Under 40 nomination, a “Superb” 10/10 Avvo rating, and a Rising Star designation by Super Lawyers.
Matthew is a member of the National College for DUI Defense and holds active memberships with the Arizona Association for Criminal Justice and the Arizona Association for Justice. His firm handles criminal defense, DUI, drug charges, and traffic offenses, offering free consultations and affordable payment plans to make quality defense accessible to all Arizonans.
