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.
Possible Defenses to a Domestic Violence Charge
There are numerous defenses available to anyone charged with any of the above charges, some of which are dependent on the crime for which you are being prosecuted.
- Self-defense. You can asset self-defense if you reasonably believed you or someone near you was in imminent danger of being harmed or unlawfully or offensively touched and that you needed to apply force to protect yourself or that other person. The force used must be only that required or necessary to defend yourself.
- Lack of injury. If no injury occurred, then certainly you cannot be prosecuted under PC 243.5, corporal injury to a spouse or cohabitant. You need not have produced a visible injury, though, to be charged with a battery offense or elder abuse.
- Lack of a sustained or reasonable fear for one’s safety or well-being. To be prosecuted for criminal threats, the victim must have had a reasonable fear of the threat and it must have lasted for more than a moment. Merely being startled or being told by the defendant that he or she may get you some day may not be enough to constitute a crime.
- False accusations. Many times, a jealous spouse or ex-dating partner or vengeful family member will fabricate a charge of assault or abuse. Often, a comprehensive medical examination will not contradict the accuser’s account of how an alleged injury occurred.
- Mistaken assumptions. In some cases, someone who is required to report suspected abuse or domestic violence will report it to authorities. A criminal defense attorney may have to launch a separate investigation to exonerate the defendant by showing that either someone else was responsible or that some other plausible explanation explains the injury.
- Violation of constitutional rights. Police must follow certain protocol that adheres to rights found in the federal and state constitutions regarding reasonable searches and seizures, extracting confessions and lawfully arresting someone.
Contact the Domestic Violence Attorney Group
A domestic violence accusation may be result of a mistake or a fabricated allegation from someone seeking retribution or vengeance against you. There are numerous cases where mitigating circumstances, unknown facts, misunderstandings or overzealous prosecutions result in unsubstantiated or excessive charges that our attorneys can examine and appropriately advise you. Promptly retaining an experienced domestic violence lawyer from the Domestic Violence Attorney Group can often mean the difference between getting your case dismissed, charges reduced, or having you plea to a different offense with lesser penalties. Toluca Lake Domestic Violence Attorney – Experienced & Aggressive Lawyer and Lawyers Fighting for You in Toluca Lake, California
About Toluca Lake
Toluca Lake is an affluent neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles located in the San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles County, California, 12 miles (19 km) northwest of Downtown. The name is also given to a private natural lake which is fed by the Los Angeles River and maintained by neighboring property owners. A small part of Toluca Lake spills over into nearby Burbank.
According to an analysis of the 2000 census data by the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles section of Toluca Lake is an affluent, domestically stable, well-educated, older-aged, low-density neighborhood of the city.
The history of Toluca Lake can be traced back to the days of the Tongva Indians, followed by Spanish and Mexican occupation and development. It was part of the early rancho system and then it was later divided, with the neighborhood being known as Forman Toluca Ranch. In 1923, investors bought and developed the land as "Toluca Lake Park".
In recent years the neighborhood has been the home of noted entertainment and other personalities and was the site of the wedding reception for Ronald and Nancy Reagan. More recently yet there has been opposition to a proposed development in North Hollywood by NBCUniversal and Thomas Properties Group.
Toluca Lake started out as Forman Toluca Ranch, a ranch known for its crops of peaches, apples and walnuts.
Aviator Amelia Earhart lived in Toluca Lake on Valley Spring Lane after marrying flamboyant publishing magnate George P. Putnam in 1931. The Spanish colonial-style home, which still exists today, features a front-yard tree under which she signed her round-the-world flight plan. She made her home in Toluca Lake because the best aircraft in the world were being designed and built nearby at the Lockheed plant in Burbank. Entertainer Bob Hope moved to Toluca Lake in the late 1930s and lived there until his death in 2003 at the age of 100. In the 1938 Little Rascals film Three Men in a Tub, the kids hold a regatta on the lake, which is shown to be still largely surrounded by open country at that time. In 1945, Frank Sinatra and his family moved into a house in Toluca Lake and spent weekends at their Lone Palm Hotel in Palm Springs. The house was located down the street from where Earhart had lived.Former actor and 40th President of the United States Ronald Reagan had his wedding reception with second wife Nancy Reagan at the Toluca Lake home of actor (and best man) William Holden on March 4, 1952.
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