Domestic Battery: PC 243(e)(1)

Domestic battery also concerns a willful or intentional act on an intimate partner except that the injury can be trivial, though harmful or offensive, and need not have caused any pain to the victim. For a battery to occur, it can be any unwanted contact such as pushing or slapping the individual and doing so with the purpose or intent of committing harm. A battery also occurs regardless if the contact was not directly on the victim. For example, smashing the victim’s car window while the person was inside, snatching a necklace off the intimate partner or kicking the victim’s cat in the person’s presence could be charged as domestic battery.

Domestic battery is a misdemeanor though you can face aggravated battery charges, which can be charged as a felony if the intimate partner suffered serious bodily injury, and face state prison time. In many cases, the court will require the offender to attend a batterer’s treatment program for at least one year as a condition of probation. A subsequent domestic battery conviction results in a mandatory minimum jail time of 48 hours.

Corporal Injury to a Spouse or Cohabitant: PC 243.5

This is one of the more serious domestic violence crimes. You may be charged if you willfully cause or inflict an injury or “traumatic condition” on an intimate partner. The offense is similar to a battery charge since the injury can be minor and need not constitute serious bodily injury. Merely pushing someone who falls and breaks an arm or sprains a joint satisfies the elements of this offense since you intended to push or even scare the person. Also, your action led to the injury, even if the resulting injury was not your intent since it was the natural and probable result of your conduct.

PC 243.5 is a wobbler, meaning it can be charged as either a misdemeanor or felony depending on the facts of the case, such as the severity of the conduct and injury and your criminal history. There are substantial enhancement factors that can dramatically increase your sentence if you have prior assault or domestic violence convictions within 7 years of the current offense, or if your actions resulted in serious bodily injury to the intimate partner.

Criminal Threats: PC 422

Very often, a domestic violence accusation is based on a threat to commit physical violence or to place the individual in fear of harm. The threat, though, cannot be equivocal or vague but must be direct and unmistakable as well as threaten imminent harm. It can be verbal or communicated in writing or in an email. Further, the victim’s fear must be real, reasonable or well-founded and not be momentary or fleeting. The threat of violence also must be intended to be committed now or in the immediate future.

Further, a threatening gesture such as moving your finger across your throat or pretending to punch another person is not considered a criminal threat.

Criminal threats are wobbler offenses. If convicted of a felony, the offender faces up to 3 years in state prison and a strike pursuant to California’s 3-Strikes law.

Elder Abuse: PC 368

Elder abuse is an offense against any person who is at least 65 years of age. It concerns not only physical violence against the person but also conduct that produces emotional distress, results in financial exploitation or places the senior in a dangerous situation where harm is likely to occur. The offender’s actions must have been willful or criminally negligent.

Elder abuse is often committed by family members or nursing home staff who may withhold medication, assault the senior or forge a signature on a Social Security check and misappropriate it. Constant verbal abuse may also constitute elder abuse if it causes undue mental suffering. Caretakers, nurses, physicians and social workers are required to report suspected abuse to law enforcement authorities.

Senior or elder abuse can be prosecuted as either a misdemeanor or felony. Some counties have special prosecutors to handle these allegations since these types of crimes are not uncommon. A felony conviction carries 2 to 4 years in state prison and a consecutive 3 to 7 year term if the senior suffers a serious bodily injury from the abusive conduct.