(2 Counts) Felony Extortion Dismissed – State v. Ms. M (DMC No. 13613) (Maricopa County Superior Court CR2012-010200):  Ms. M was engaged in a dispute with a doctor’s office, in which she had alleged she had been traumatized and assaulted by the doctor.  In order to resolve the case civilly, she made several demands herself, which included a threat of going to the police, the medical board and the media if the case was not settled quickly.  The doctor’s office contacted the police and filed charges of Theft by Extortion pursuant to Arizona Revised Statute 13-1804 (6).  In that Statute it makes it a crime to “expose a secret or an assertive fact, whether true or false, tending to subject anyone to hatred, contempt or ridicule or to impair the person’s credit or business.” The case went to a Grand Jury and they indicted and arrested Ms. M.

We became involved in the case and provided a court case decision from 1995 to the Prosecutor which declared that portion of the Statute to be unconstitutional.  Under State v Weinstein, 182 Ariz. 364 (Div 1 1995).  Once the Deputy County Attorney realized they had began prosecution on an invalid statute, all charges were immediately Dismissed.