Think your cell phone location is private?  Think again!  Now there is the stingray, a surveillance device used by the government that can trick suspects’ cell phones into revealing their locations.  This stingray is not a fish.  It is a “cell site simulator,” and it can mimic cell phone towers in order to force cell phones in the area to transmit “pings” back to the stingray devices, en

Ever since police dogs have been used to sniff out drugs and contraband, the courts have recognized what we lawyers call “the plain sniff” rule.  What this means is that any contraband that can be smelled by a dog can give law enforcement probable cause to search just as if the contraband were in plain view of the officer.  Under this rule, for example, a drug sniffing dog alerting on your car at a traffic stop or ch

We see this on television shows all of the time:  the perp being led away in handcuffs, screaming:  “I didn’t do it!  I’ve been entrapped!”  But in the real world, more and more terrorism investigations and stings are conducted on would-be terrorists who are foolish enough to do business with an FBI informant.  But what exactly is the entrapment defense in Arizona?  Is it the same in all of the states?           Hist

At the November 2002 general election, Arizona voters passed ballot Proposition 103 amending Article 2, Section 22 of the Arizona Constitution and A.R.S. § 13–3961, both of which governed offenses for which the accused could be held without bond.  Previously, only capital offenses were non-bondable as a matter of law.  Proposition 103 added to the list of capital offenses the charges of sexual assault, sexual conduct

If you carry a weapon for self-defense, and were accosted by an aggressive individual, how would you use your gun?  Say, for instance, you are in your car, driving along, and minding your own business when an aggressive driver begins tailgating you, honking the horn and making rude gestures at you.  When you try to de-escalate the situation and leave the area, you find that you are being followed by this person.  You

My friend and I have this discussion all of the time about privacy and technology. His attitude about all the advances in information technology and privacy is laissez faire: None of the invasions by technology into our private lives matters, he says, “if you’re not doing anything wrong.” Think again. What if your brother, or nephew, or cousin does “something wrong”? Can that bring the police knocking at your door in

Most people are aware that the police usually ask for permission before they conduct a warrantless search. What most people are not aware is that you, the citizen, have a right to refuse a search and request a warrant. Some people, when confronted by a person in authority, simply acquiesce. It doesn’t have to be so. The Arizona Supreme Court, in a resounding blow for individual rights and liberties, on April 26, 2016

This article about technological devices that are being used by law enforcement to skim funds off of pre-paid debit cards caught our eye. The Oklahoma law enforcement community has been using these devices to summarily seize money from individuals it suspects are drug dealers. For more information about what is going on in Oklahoma, click here. Basically, with this new “tool”, the government can take your money witho

A few years ago, while representing a criminal client, we solicited her friends and family to write letters to the judge in advance of sentencing. One of those letters was submitted to us on a bar napkin. Not appropriate. Also not appropriate were statements made by Dan A. Turner, father of Brock Turner, the Stanford University swimmer who pled guilty the other day to sexually assaulting a 23 year-old student while s

As it gets hotter, and owners and their furry friends decide to take refuge in the air conditioned comfort of places like pet stores, malls, public transit and other venues where animals are allowed or tolerated, it seems a good time to bring up A.R.S. §11-1025, which concerns legal responsibility in Arizona when any dog bites a human in a public place or on private property. The statute reads: “The owner of a