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. Stanislaus County Domestic Violence Attorney – Experienced & Aggressive Lawyer and Lawyers Fighting for You in Stanislaus County, California
| Stanislaus County Domestic Violence Attorney | |
| Modesto Domestic Violence Attorney | Patterson Domestic Violence Attorney |
| Ceres Domestic Violence Attorney | Riverbank Domestic Violence Attorney |
| Hughson Domestic Violence Attorney | Turlock Domestic Violence Attorney |
| Newman Domestic Violence Attorney | Waterford Domestic Violence Attorney |
| Oakdale Domestic Violence Attorney | |
About Stanislaus County
Stanislaus County is a county located in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 514,453 up from 446,997 at the 2000 census. The county seat is Modesto.
Stanislaus County is included in the Modesto Metropolitan Statistical Area.
The county is named for the Stanislaus River, first discovered by a European, Gabriel Moraga, in 1806, and later renamed Rio Estanislao in honor of Estanislao, a mission-educated renegade Native American chief who led a band of Indians in a series of battles against Mexican troops until finally being defeated by General Mariano Vallejo in 1826. Estanislao was his baptismal name, the Spanish version of Stanislaus, itself the Latin version of the name of an 11th-century Polish Catholic Saint Stanislaus the Martyr.
Stanislaus County was formed from part of Tuolumne County in 1854.The first county seat was situated at Adamsville, then moved to Empire in November, then to La Grange in December, then to Knights Ferry in 1862, and definitely fixed at the present location in Modesto in 1871.
Stanisławów was founded as a fortress in 1650 in Europe and was named after the Polish hetman Stanisław "Rewera" Potocki, although other sources claim it was named after his grandson (see History of Ivano-Frankivsk). In 1772 its name was transliterated into German as Stanislau when it became part of the Austrian Empire and later Austria-Hungary; however, after the revolution of 1848 the city carried three different linguistic renderings of its name: German, Polish, and Ruthenian (German: Stanislau; Polish: Stanisławów; Ukrainian: Станиславів, Stanyslaviv). Other spellings used in the local press-media included: Russian: Станиславов and Yiddish: סטאַניסלאוו.
Stanislaus County has historically been divided socially and economically by the north-flowing San Joaquin River, which provided a natural barrier to trade and travel for much of the county's history. Isolated from the main rail corridors through the county and the irrigation projects that generated much of the region's economic prosperity, the part of Stanislaus County west of the river (known to locals as the "West Side" of the county) has largely remained rural and economically dependent on agricultural activities. Because of its proximity to Interstate 5 and the California Aqueduct some towns within this area, including Patterson and Newman, have experienced tremendous growth and are being transformed into bedroom communities for commuters from the nearby San Francisco Bay Area, while others (including Westley and Crows Landing) have been almost entirely overlooked by development and remain tiny farming communities.
more ...$2390 Domestic Violence Attorney Promotion. Payment Plans Available.
Toll Free 1(888) 603-4069
Available 7 Days a Week 7am to 9pm
