FELONY SEXUAL ASSAULT NOT CHARGED – State v. Mr. Z (DMC No. 14391) (Chandler Police Department DR No. 2014-XXXXX): At the time of the allegations Mr. Z was a 43-year-old male who was living with his girlfriend. Mr. Z and his girlfriend hosted a large party for friends and coworkers. The party was a somewhat bacchanalian affair, with copious amounts of alcohol, karaoke and pornographic videos being played. Reportedly, some guests had also brought other substances to ingest.  The complaining victim was a 30-year-old female who had attended the party with another friend. Reportedly, the complaining victim was drinking significant amounts of alcohol, as were many others, and occasionally smoking marijuana. At some point in time, the complaining victim was flashing her breasts at other party attendees. The complaining victim later claimed to have little to no recollection of the party itself. She claimed that she awoke the next day at a friend’s house wearing a T-shirt and shorts that were not her own.

She learned that another individual at the party had dropped her off at the friend’s house sometime in the early morning hours. The man who had dropped her off told her friend that she might want to call the police as he felt something inappropriate had happened. The male, a man by the name of Timothy, advised the complaining victim’s friend that he had walked in to a bedroom to find the complaining victim passed out on a bed with her pants and underwear down. He stated that he saw our client leaning over her and that it “just didn’t seem right.” He stated that our client’s girlfriend and another woman awoke the complaining victim and took her into the bathroom to clean her up. They stated that the complaining victim had vomited on herself and had urinated on herself.  Timothy then volunteered to take the complaining victim to her friend’s apartment.

After waking up at her friend’s house, the complaining victim was then taken to the hospital by her sister and her friend where a forensic examination was conducted. The police were called regarding a Sexual Assault per Arizona Revised Statute ARS 13-1406, and the complaining victim gave her statement to the police.  The complaining victim’s sister told the police she had also spoken with Timothy. She stated that Timothy had told her that when Timothy walked into the room he saw our client on his knees behind the complaining victim with his back to the door. Timothy advised that he did not see or notice whether or not our client had his pants buttoned or unbuttoned.

With the police present, the complaining victim’s sister contacted Timothy by phone. Timothy indicated that the entire event made him feel really uncomfortable. He thought our client was up to something and that his girlfriend was trying to cover up something. Timothy told the complaining victim’s sister that he noticed our client going in and out of the room on numerous occasions which felt odd and he finally went to check on the victim. He then found our client in the room with the complaining victim. Timothy stated that our client and his girlfriend are known to be possible “swingers.”

Mr. Z came to our office and retained us because he began receiving suspicious texts and calls from the complaining victim’s sister. We advised our client of the normal police techniques in these types of cases, including “confrontation calls.” Our Pre-Charge team met and staffed this case and laid put together plan to deal with the matter. We immediately reached out to the Chandler Police Department and advised the sergeant in charge of the Sex Crimes detail that we were representing Mr. Z. We followed that up with written notice of representation to the Police Department as well as to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office. We further advised Maricopa County Attorney’s Office that should a grand jury be impaneled, our client requested that they be advised that he was willing to appear and testify.

Subsequently, “confrontation calls” were attempted to both our client and his girlfriend. Those calls were unsuccessful in obtaining any information due to our advice to Mr. Z. In his report, the Detective states “no suspect interview was ever obtained from [Mr. Z] on this case investigation and no more pretextual phone calls were attempted.” The Detective was forced to conclude that he had no evidence of a crime being committed and no probable cause to arrest our client. The case disposition was “closed –exceptional means (no proof of crime).”