In this section, our attorneys explain Nevada’s criminal laws and legal concepts, A to Z
Criminal Law A to Z
In this section, our attorneys explain Nevada’s criminal laws and legal concepts, A to Z
Crimes by NRS Section
Every crime in Nevada is based in a section of the Nevada Revised Statutes (NRS). For each crime, our attorneys explain the laws, penalties and best defenses to fight the charge.
Nevada DUI
Getting arrested for DUI does not mean you will be convicted. Police misconduct, defective breathalyzers and crime lab mistakes may be enough to get your charges lessened or dismissed. Visit our page on Nevada DUI Laws to learn more.
Post-Conviction
Even if you’ve already been convicted of a crime, there is still much you can do to seal your record and restore your rights. Our attorneys explain how.
Please note: Our firm only handles criminal and DUI cases, and only in California. We do not handle any of the following cases:
And we do not handle any cases outside of California.
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Hiding a fugitive from the police is illegal in Nevada if you know the person has escaped jail, prison, or police custody. If you are truly unaware that the person is on the run, you should not face charges for concealing them.1
Example: After escaping from a prison bus, Jim runs into a motel and asks for a room. Since the motel clerk has no idea that Jim is wanted by police, he is committing no crime by renting him a room.
Your punishment for knowingly hiding people who escaped from custody in Nevada depends on the crime(s) they were arrested for, charged with, or convicted of.
Acting as an “accessory after the fact” is a broader crime than concealing a fugitive in Nevada. Being an accessory is trying to keep a criminal from being brought to justice by either:
Example: Harry shows up at his friend Tom’s door and confesses to burgling a store. Tom agrees to hide the stolen goods until the coast clears. Here, Tom would face accessory charges because he is hiding evidence of a crime, not Harry himself.
The penalties for being an accessory are the same – or similar – to concealing a fugitive.4
If a suspected fugitive crosses state lines into or out of Nevada, you can face federal charges for knowingly concealing the fugitive. You can be convicted even if the fugitive threatens to hurt you for not helping them.
If the fugitive is escaping arrest or incarceration for a felony, hiding them carries a fine and/or up to five years in Federal Prison. If the crime is a non-felony, hiding them carries a fine and/or up to one year in prison.5 Finally, hiding a fugitive who escaped Federal Prison carries up to 3 years in prison.6
As with Nevada law, federal law requires that you know the person is a fugitive in order for you to be criminally responsible for hiding them:
Example: Audrey escapes from prison in San Francisco and flees to Las Vegas, where she hides in her friend Greg’s casita. The U.S. Marshals Service tracks down Audrey and arrests both Audrey as well as Greg for concealing Audrey. Though since Greg had no knowledge that Audrey was hiding in his casita, the U.S. Attorney’s Office eventually drops the charges against Greg.
From our experience with clients charged with hiding fugitives in Nevada, our attorneys rely on three primary defenses to get prosecutors to drop or reduce these cases to a lesser offense:
The D.A. bears the high burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. As long as we can show the state’s evidence is too holey to sustain guilt, the judge should dismiss the charges.
A former Los Angeles prosecutor, attorney Neil Shouse graduated with honors from UC Berkeley and Harvard Law School (and completed additional graduate studies at MIT). He has been featured on CNN, Good Morning America, Dr Phil, The Today Show and Court TV. Mr Shouse has been recognized by the National Trial Lawyers as one of the Top 100 Criminal and Top 100 Civil Attorneys.