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Posted on December 13, 2024 in Arizona Revised Statutes
Threatening another person with physical injury or serious property damage is illegal in the state of Arizona. You do not need to actually carry out the threat to be arrested and prosecuted for it. This makes threats different from other crimes that require committing a physical act upon another person, like criminal assault, kidnapping, sexual assault, or murder.
If you have been charged with making threats, call AZ Defenders at any time, day or night, at (480) 456-6400. You can also contact us on our website to ask a question to one of our criminal defense specialists or to arrange a free consultation.
The Arizona statute that makes assault illegal is ARS 13-1202. Here it is, in its entirety; we have added emphasis to some of the more important considerations in interpreting this law.
A. A person commits threatening or intimidating if the person threatens or intimidates by word or conduct:
1. To cause physical injury to another person or serious damage to the property of another; or
2. To cause, or in reckless disregard to causing, serious public inconvenience including, but not limited to, evacuation of a building, place of assembly or transportation facility; or
3. To cause physical injury to another person or damage to the property of another in order to promote, further or assist in the interests of or to cause, induce or solicit another person to participate in a criminal street gang, a criminal syndicate or a racketeering enterprise.
B. Threatening or intimidating pursuant to subsection A, paragraph 1 or 2 is a class 1 misdemeanor, except that it is a class 6 felony if:
1. The offense is committed in retaliation for a victim’s either reporting criminal activity or being involved in an organization, other than a law enforcement agency, that is established for the purpose of reporting or preventing criminal activity.
2. The person is a criminal street gang member.
C. Threatening or intimidating pursuant to subsection A, paragraph 3 is a class 3 felony.
The ways that people can threaten one another are limited mainly by the imagination. The table below shows how different kinds of threatening and intimidating behavior can trigger the Arizona threats statute.
| Type of Behavior | Example | Level of Crime | Statutory Reference |
| Threatening to cause physical injury | Threatening to punch another person in the face | Class 1 Misdemeanor | ARS 13-202(A)(1) |
| Threatening serious property damage | Threatening to break the window of someone else’s home, or to slash that person’s car tires | Class 1 Misdemeanor | ARS 13-202(A)(1) |
| Threatening to cause serious public inconvenience | Calling in a bomb threat that forces a building evacuation | Class 1 Misdemeanor | ARS 13-202(A)(2) |
| Threatening to retaliate against a person for reporting a crime | Attempting to intimidate a person who witnessed criminal activity into silence by threatening that person or that person’s family | Class 6 Felony | ARS 13-202(B)(1) |
| Gang-related threats | A street gang member threatens another person with physical violence to intimidate that person into moving out of his or her home in the neighborhood | Class 6 Felony | ARS 13-202(B)(2) |
| Threatening or intimidating someone else to engage in criminal activity like joining a street gang, criminal activity, or racketeering enterprise | Threatening to harm a family member of someone else to coerce that person into embezzling money from that person’s place of employment | Class 3 Felony | ARS 13-202(A)(3) |
ARS 13-1202 clearly distinguishes between misdemeanor and felony threatening and intimidation. Most of the time, conviction under the statute will result in a Class 1 Misdemeanor sentence, but in a few situations, this can escalate into a Class 6 Felony or a Class 3 Felony crime.
The table below shows how the sentencing range increases for each successive level of conviction.
| Penalty | Class 1 Misdemeanor | Class 6 Felony | Class 3 Felony |
| Jail time | Up to six months in jail | Up to two years in an Arizona state prison | Up to 8.75 years in Arizona state prison |
| Financial penalty | Up to $2500 in fines, plus surcharges | Up to $150,000 in fines, plus surcharges | Up to $150,000 in fines, plus surcharges |
If you are found guilty of either a misdemeanor or felony for threatening & Intimidating, the court can impose probation, community service, and victim restitution payments in addition to incarceration and financial penalties for each level of conviction.
Arizona courts recognize multiple defenses against charges of threatening or intimidating. We cover some of the more common defenses here.
To sustain a conviction, the prosecution must show that the defendant made genuine threats. This means that, if the defendant can show that the words or acts alleged to be threatening or intimidating were not meant to convey a real intent but were rather made in a different spirit, such as an expression of frustration or in jest, this could be a defense to whether a reasonable person would take them as genuine.
It is possible in some cases that the alleged victim made up the supposed threatening or intimidating words or behaviors in an attempt to frame the accused. This can happen, for example, in domestic violence claims when one party is attempting to portray the other person in a negative light before the court.
Sometimes, especially when there are no witnesses to the alleged threatening or intimidating statement or act, it may be hard for the prosecution to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the threat was actually made.
Sometimes a person may make a statement that can be technically perceived as threatening or intimidating, but which under the circumstances surrounding the words is actually meant to ward off what the defendant perceived as a threat.
Under Arizona’s self-defense law, ARS 13-404, a person is justified in threatening physical force against another when acting in self-defense of the other person’s use or attempted use of unlawful physical force. For example, if one person advances aggressively toward another, and that individual says something like, “Take one more step closer, and I’ll hit you,” this might be a statement that the court concludes a reasonable person might make in that situation.
Note, however, that self-defense is valid only if the perceived threat to the person claiming the defense was based on apprehension of a physical act; issuing a threat in response to words alone will not suffice as self-defense.
This defense can be considered a variation of lack of intent. The liberties granted by the First Amendment and 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution protect your right to free speech.
Generally, unless the words used to convey an alleged threat can be reasonably taken as “fighting words” that are likely to result in a violent reaction by another person, language that might otherwise be reasonably construed as offensive or abusive is protected under the U.S. Constitution and the Arizona state constitution.
If you are charged with threatening, then you need a Phoenix criminal defense attorney on your side to aggressively and expertly defend you against this potentially serious offense in negotiations with prosecutors and in court.
Defending against threatening or intimidating charges is often fact-intensive and subject to interpretation of what a reasonable person might believe your words mean; convincing a court or a jury is something that a skilled and experienced criminal defense lawyer, like one of ours, knows how to do.Call the attorneys at AZ Defenders today at 480-456-6400 or contact us online for a free consultation.