Arizona Laws 13-2304. Collection of extensions of credit by extortionate means
A. A person who knowingly participates in any way in the use of any extortionate means to collect or attempt to collect any extensions of credit or to punish any person for the nonrepayment thereof is guilty of a class 4 felony.
Terms Used In Arizona Laws 13-2304
- Defendant: In a civil suit, the person complained against; in a criminal case, the person accused of the crime.
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- Felony: means an offense for which a sentence to a term of imprisonment in the custody of the state department of corrections is authorized by any law of this state. See Arizona Laws 13-105
- Knowingly: means , with respect to conduct or to a circumstance described by a statute defining an offense, that a person is aware or believes that the person's conduct is of that nature or that the circumstance exists. See Arizona Laws 13-105
- Person: means a human being and, as the context requires, an enterprise, a public or private corporation, an unincorporated association, a partnership, a firm, a society, a government, a governmental authority or an individual or entity capable of holding a legal or beneficial interest in property. See Arizona Laws 13-105
B. In any prosecution pursuant to this section, for the purpose of showing an implicit threat as a means of collection, evidence may be introduced tending to show that one or more extensions of credit by the creditor were, to the knowledge of the person against whom the implicit threat was alleged to have been made, collected or attempted to be collected by extortionate means or that the nonrepayment was punished by extortionate means.
C. In any prosecution pursuant to this section, if evidence has been introduced tending to show the existence at the time the extension of credit in question was made of the circumstances described in section 13-2302, subsection B, paragraph 1 or 2, and direct evidence of the actual belief of the debtor as to the creditor’s collection practices is not available, then for the purpose of showing that words or other means of communication, shown to have been employed as a means of collection, in fact carried an express or implicit threat, the court may in its discretion allow evidence to be introduced tending to show the reputation of the defendant in any community of which the person against whom the alleged threat was made was a member at the time of the collection or attempt at collection.