If you or a loved one has been arrested or charged with Domestic Battery it is important you seek legal advice as soon as possible. You should not make statements to police wihtout first getting legal advice and counsel.
Domestic Battery charges are complex and require experienced counsel. As an Attorney with more than 15 years of experience with Domestic Battery cases I can help you throught this time.
Domestic Battery cases involve several overlapping areas of law, including possibly custody matters, restraining orders, and criminal cases. If you do not seek legal counsel right away you run the risk of violating even more laws and getting yourself into further legal problems. Below I will go through a brief outline of the law as to the most common domestic battery chages which are the corporeal injury to a spouse as both a Felony and a Misdemeanor.
This charge is a wobbler which means it can be charged as either a Felony or a Misdemeanor. I will briefly go through the elements for both.
FELONY
1. Defendant willfully inflicted corporeal injury on victim.
2. Victim was either:
defendant’s spouse or former spouse
person with whom he or she is or was in a cohabitating with
fiance or fiance or someone with whom the offender has or previously had an engagement or dating relationship.
the mother or father of his or her child.
3. Corporeal injury resulted in a traumatic condition
MISDEMEANOR
1, Defendant willfully inflicted corporeal injury on the victim
2. Victim was either:
defendants spouse
person with whom her or she was cohabitating with
fiance or fiance, or someone with whom the offender has, or previously had a dating relationship
the mother or father of his or her child.
corporeal injury resulted in a traumatic condition.
Another common charge in relation to domestic battery is the charge of 243 e 1 domestic battery upon a spouse. I will go through the elements in those type of cases.
1. Defendant committed battery upon victim.
2. At the time of the battery, Victim was the defendants spouse or fiance or an individual with whom defendant currently has, or has previously had a dating relationship
Pc 243e1
These are the most common charges when it comes to Domestic Battery all have there own unique defenses.
One thing that may occur and I have seen happen on several occasions is that after an allegation is made the prosecutor will have the alleged victim phone the person they say battered them. When this happens they are trying to elicit incriminating responses from the person on the phone. These can be used as evidence against you. Because they are made at the behest of Law Enforcement they can be used even if you do not know you are being taped. This is one reason you should get legal counsel even before your first court date there are many others.
The district Attorney often has a small amount of information to go on. Usually they do not have your side of the story. It is up to your defense attorney and investigator to fully investigate the case even before charges are brought and give that evidence over to the prosecution so that the prosecution has a more full picture of exactly what happened.
This could include pictures, of your injuries
witness statements
and or video evidence that constradicts the statement of the accuser. These type of things need to be done from the beggining of the case in order for you to mount an effective defense under any of the charges listed above.
So again if you or a loved one has been arrested investigated or charged give us a call 559-441-1418.
