FELONY SEXUAL ASSAULT NOT CHARGED – State v. Mr. W (DMC No. 13875) (Phoenix Police Department DR No. 2013-XXXXXXXX): Mr. W had engaged in consensual sex acts with a neighbor after an evening of partying. Both Mr. W and the neighbor whom he engaged in a sex acts with, had significant others at the time. Sometime after this consensual sex act, Mr. W received a telephone call from a Detective at the Phoenix Police Department. The Detective indicated he wanted to speak with him about an allegation of Sexual Assault per Arizona Revised Statute ARS 13-1406 being made by Mr. W’s female neighbor. Prior to the scheduled meeting, Mr. W’s contacted and retained our firm. Once our services were retained, I met with the Pre-Charge team and we decided (1) order a copy of the transcripts from an Injunction Against Harassment hearing that had occurred prior to the contact with police, (2) obtain a copy of the police report regarding this investigation, (3) contact the Detective regarding the status of the investigation, and (4) send a Trebus letter to the Maricopa County Attorney’s office.
Immediately after being retained, we contacted the Detective who provided us with the police report number in this case. We advised that our client would not be speaking with the Detective at that time. The Detective indicated the case would be “pending” for now. We requested and received copies of the Order of Protection hearing approximately three weeks later. In that information it was determined there were numerous calls for service that had occurred to the alleged victim’s home. We submitted requests for these to determine if our theory that the alleged victim was scared of her boyfriend and what he would do to her (i.e., was there any history of domestic violence) which is why she would make up the false allegation of Rape.
Approximately a week after receiving the documents, we prepared a detailed Trebus/Bashir letter which was sent to the County Maricopa Attorney’s office. Just days after this Trebus/Bashir letter had been sent, Mr. W voluntarily submitted to a private polygraph examination which he passed. After receiving the passed results from the polygraphist, we drafted a supplemental Trebus/Bashir letter and submitted it to the County Attorney’s Office. One week later, we had a discussion with the Detective about the polygraph and the passed results. The Detective requested a hard copy of the passed polygraph, which was sent to him. Just shy of one month later, we spoke with the Detective, who indicated that the case was in a “non-active status.” He indicated he would be working on getting a copy of the police report ready for. Later he confirmed that the case was not going any further.
