If you find yourself in a situation where a disagreement with your significant other gets the cops involved, we can help. Our team of experienced professionals knows exactly how to work with prosecutors in order to reduce the life-long consequences.
Increase your chances of success. Subscribe to Just Criminal Law on YouTube to see all of our videos.
Transcript
00:00:00:29 – 00:00:23:01
Speaker 1
Hi, everybody. This is Christina Williams from Just Criminal Law. If all we do, I’d like to talk to you today about family violence, battery charges. David Mann and I have discussed those and they really are bad situations to get yourself into and really hard to get out of, so. Hi, David.
00:00:23:29 – 00:00:56:27
Speaker 2
Hi. Yeah, we were talking about this and I always learn, you know, so much from talking to you and of course, still have questions. So here’s a scenario I think I’m just going to put this out and you tell me how this goes. So let’s say there’s a couple, okay, a man and a woman, and she starts, you know, they’re maybe they’re they’re they’re in the middle of an argument and she’s getting, you know, more and more heated and says something that just makes him so mad that he pushes her.
00:00:56:27 – 00:01:20:28
Speaker 2
He physically actually contacts her and pushes her kind of hard. And then maybe it escalates from there. And there’s some more verbal and a similar pushing. And eventually she calls the police. They come and she files a charge of assault or abuse on him, domestic abuse on him. And they go down to the station and they take care of this whole thing.
00:01:20:28 – 00:01:37:06
Speaker 2
And then he’s got this assault charge and the next day they both wake up and go, I’m really sorry. Yeah, well, we kind of got out of control and they decide they’re just going to call back down to the station and say, you know what? Could you just throw that out like that? Let’s just pretend that didn’t happen.
00:01:37:06 – 00:01:48:05
Speaker 2
We’re both we agree now that it was, you know, sort of a weird situation and they just want it thrown out. And you’re saying it’s actually not as easy as that. So tell us about that.
00:01:48:20 – 00:02:19:14
Speaker 1
Right. It’s not easy at all. That’s what happens most of the time. And once the case gets charged and it’s in the prosecutor’s hands, it’s the state of Wyoming versus the husband or what? Who’s the defendant now? And the wife or the alleged victim no longer has control over the case. She may have been holding all the cards when she was calling the cops and telling her side of the story.
00:02:19:24 – 00:02:42:07
Speaker 1
But that’s where it ends. She doesn’t get to go in and make a second statement and say, well, this is partially my fault. I know he didn’t tell you, but I started pushing him first or whatever the case may be. Once that statement made and the official reports made that’s what the state proceeds with.
00:02:43:09 – 00:03:05:00
Speaker 2
So people sometimes think it’s like, you know, that that there isn’t the law involved. So, hey, if I just explain myself really honestly and just tell them the story like would be the case if it was sort of you were kids and you were trying to talk to your parents like, Hey, can you please not ground us? Because I’m really sorry, but but this is the law.
00:03:05:01 – 00:03:27:03
Speaker 2
This is these laws exist, as far as I understand it, for situations where one of the people in the couple kind of bullies the other one into going back to the police and saying, you’re going to reverse that charge right now or else. So that’s a bad situation. But we’re not talking about that one. We’re talking about when they’re both genuinely like, no, I really, really wish this hadn’t happened.
00:03:27:03 – 00:03:32:20
Speaker 2
Like, can we reverse it? And you’re saying, No, they can’t. So what happens then?
00:03:33:21 – 00:04:09:16
Speaker 1
Well, then they obviously need the help of an experienced defense attorney. And they need just because the prosecutor’s not going to listen to both sides and let both sides come out at this point doesn’t mean that we can’t go to trial with it or an attorney can try to advocate, you know, hey, this is these are the problems with your case prosecutor And can we get some sort of deal here that both sides will be happy with?
00:04:10:28 – 00:04:17:01
Speaker 2
Yeah. And what kind of deals have you seen or have you, you know, kind of made happen?
00:04:17:01 – 00:04:51:11
Speaker 1
Well, with this type of case, the the concern is, is the defendant, if they’re convicted, they have a criminal record and they lose their gun rights. So something as simple as, you know, getting in a shoving match with your spouse can result in you no longer being able to own a firearm and being a convicted criminal. So we can try to negotiate around that where we just let the person prove to the judge and the prosecutor this is an isolated incident.
00:04:51:12 – 00:05:11:14
Speaker 1
He, you know, can obey the laws, he can get through probation, will you just give him a chance to keep this off, this off of his record? If they make it through their probation, then they can get the case dismissed. And so that’s one option that’s not as risky as the other option of going to trial.
00:05:12:02 – 00:05:15:22
Speaker 2
And then if they go to trial, what happens? What’s what are they risking then?
00:05:15:22 – 00:05:51:00
Speaker 1
Well, you know, in the scenario that you spelled out and that I elaborated on, there’s actually a potential self-defense defense here. If the alleged victim started the confrontation, started the pushing match, maybe he was grabbing at the person, Whatever the facts may be, a person is allowed to make the other person stop their attack. And so it just it would be a matter of playing it out for the jury and seeing what the jury thinks about it.
00:05:51:00 – 00:06:01:24
Speaker 1
And so it could go either way. A jury may say that was okay or it wasn’t okay. And so you’re leaving your fate, so to speak, in the hands of strangers.
00:06:02:03 – 00:06:28:19
Speaker 2
It sounds like. Either way, though, you know what they wanted was they wanted to call back the next day and just have it go away because now they felt better. But what really happens is a whole bunch of time and hassle going to court, you know, trying to figure out the best deal and possibly eventually getting it put behind them, but possibly kind of not like this.
00:06:28:24 – 00:06:45:01
Speaker 2
Still on his record, he still loses his rights. So it’s a big risk. I think that’s the moral that I’m taking away from this is accusing your spouse and calling the police and getting a charge filed against him or her. You have to consider like the long term repercussions of that. Right.
00:06:46:00 – 00:07:15:28
Speaker 1
Right, exactly. And, you know, the the long term repercussions and and I know some people have already been in this situation and their spouse is already convicted of a family violence battery. They’ve already lost their rights. But we can even help people in that situation by helping that person get their record expunged and get their rights restored. So that’s a third option we didn’t talk about.
00:07:16:14 – 00:07:26:17
Speaker 2
Okay, well, I bet you anything we may do a video on that subject. So until then, someone wants to contact you. How do they do that?
00:07:27:18 – 00:07:39:11
Speaker 1
We will include a link in the description and they can call, text or chat with a member of my team any time, day or night. We know you only get one shot at justice, so make yours count.
