Misunderstandings come up now and then. Since people have different temperaments, different reactions come up in these situations. While emotions are flaring up, you might end up pushing or shoving your partner. While you might view it as a light thing, the law in California does not. This is domestic battery.

This serious offense requires you to find the best law firm, the California Criminal Lawyer Group in Fresno is able to take up your case and help you get the best result. Read on to understand all that domestic battery entails and how you can defend yourself from these charges.

Statistical Overview of Domestic Violence

Domestic violence is prevalent in society today. In a year, about 10 million men and women in the United States report such cases. According to government statistics, California had reported almost 12,500 domestic violence misdemeanor charges and ten ongoing domestic violence protective orders to the NICS Index at the end of December 2019.

These statistics are general on all forms of domestic violence, including battery. The law is keen on addressing these cases, considering the damage they pose and their implications. It is, therefore, crucial for one to know how the law views and defines such cases. This will help you avoid getting on the wrong footing, and if you find yourself in such situations, you will know the best Fresno attorney to call.

Understanding Battery

For Californians, battery under Penal Code Section 242 is: “any willful and unlawful use of force or violence upon the person of another,” which translates to intentional and harmful touching. Note that even when there’s no injury, the law can charge you with battery. A single “unwanted or insulting touching of another” is sufficient for a prosecutor to bring a battery case under the law.

Domestic Battery According to the California Laws

According to the California Penal Code Section 243 (e) (1), domestic battery is a misdemeanor that makes up the willful use of force or violence against any person with whom you have an intimate relationship. These are the close persons referred to:

  • Spouse.
  • Parent to the defendant’s child.
  • Fiancee.
  • Fiance.
  • Someone who the defendant is dating.
  • Former spouse.
  • Any blood relative.
  • Current or former defendant’s cohabiting partner.

As defined by the law, Cohabitation refers to two unrelated people living together for an extended period, which could include factors such as a sexual relationship between different people, income and expense sharing, shared ownership of a home or property, and the length and consistency of the relationship.

Facing domestic battery accusation is possible even where the victim experienced no physical contact. The law also states that contact through clothes or using another object qualifies for domestic battery when done aggressively.

Among all California’s domestic violence laws, this is the least offensive charge. However, it can escalate to aggravated battery or willful infliction of corporal injury under more aggressive laws. Depending on the intensity of the victim’s injuries, these crimes can be felonies.

To determine whether a charge is a misdemeanor or felony, the district attorney might ask for the victim’s input on how they perceive the incident.

Making the Charge

While conducting their investigations, the police may use some parameters which might lead to false or just charges. They may consider:

  • The person who initially called 911.
  • The physical appearance of the individuals at the scene.
  • The individual who appeared calmer when they got to the scene.
  • The nature of individual statements given, whether consistent or contradictory.

After the police have conducted their investigations, they will submit their written reports to the office of the District Attorney. They may do this in the prosecutor’s presence, who will help determine if he should formally file the domestic battery case.

Proving the Charge

You are likely to face a domestic battery charge when the victim’s injuries are mild or non-existent or if you lack a prior record. If you are convicted, you will face court penalties and several other collateral consequences.

The prosecutor’s first duty is to prove that the defendant had intentional physical contact with the victim and that their relationship is as per the penal code 243(e)(1). If the confrontation were only verbal with no harmful physical encounter, there would be no support for the charge. However, if the defendant pushed or shoved the victim, then he has a case to answer.

The giant huddle to face here is to prove that there was a domestic battery.

The prosecutor primarily relies on the testimony of the victim or witnesses to the domestic battery. The prosecution might also present photographs of the injury sustained, if any. In most instances, the victim might not be willing to press the charges.

Unlike in other domestic violence cases, the victim has no liberty to drop off the charges. The prosecutor makes the ultimate decision on whether or not the case will proceed to trial. The victim has to cooperate. If the victim does not agree to testify in court, he will receive an order. Failure to comply with this order means the victim will face a jail term for contempt of the court’s ruling.

Even so, the prosecutor will regardless go on with the charge. The victim might receive a call to testify in court. If he fails to appear, he will obtain a warrant.

This is the main difference between a domestic battery and a simple battery. The latter involves a physical fight between individuals of no relation. If the victim does not file a case, the defendant is free, and the prosecutor records nothing against him. However, if the defendant gets released in a domestic battery case, this incident remains on record, and he loses some privileges.

Defenses for Domestic Battery

Your attorney is likely to take these defense strategies to win your case.

Self-Defense or Defending Others

If your reaction was to defend yourself or any other person in the scene, your attorney might take this defense angle. To use this angle successfully, you need to provide a sustainable belief that you or a different person could have suffered bodily injuries by failure to react.

To establish self-defense or defense of others, the defendant’s lawyer might interview other people to determine the victim’s behaviors, whether or not there have been domestic battery incidents in the past.

The force you apply to oppose the threat should be directly proportional to the threat itself and not go overboard. This defense will only work if, after the threat stops, the offense ceases.

Here is a self-defense scenario:

Shenan is receiving a beating from his father for some mistake he made. His mother comes in and pushes her husband from Shenan. Unfortunately, he hits himself against the wall but suffers no bodily injury.

If Shenan’s mother gets a domestic battery charge, her attorney might use defending others to justify her actions to protect her son from possible bodily injury.

While cases like the scenario above can happen, the law gives parents the right to discipline their children. In terms of a parent’s right to reprimand their child, parents are permitted to use necessary and appropriate force to do so. In most circumstances, parental punishment will not be deemed battery unless the parent’s actions cause physical harm to the child or constitute abuse.

Accidental Domestic Battery

According to the law, domestic battery ought to be a willful or intentional application of force. If you accidentally battered someone, then you do not bear the guilt of domestic battery. In such instances, the prosecutor might not be able to prove the intentional use of force.

False Allegations

Persons in intimate relationships might sometimes get into heated arguments. As a result of anger or to receive an upper hand in the fight, one of the individuals might make a false domestic battery accusation. If this case applies to you, your attorney will make inquiries and conduct investigations to lay down the facts to show the prosecutor that the allegation is false.

Defense of Property

Some arguments may get heated, such that someone starts throwing off utensils or destroying furniture. To prevent further property damage, you might push the assailant in an attempt to get him back to his senses. While taking this line of defense, the attorney should have evidence of the destroyed property.

Penalties when Convicted for Domestic Battery

The court can impose several penalties on a defendant upon conviction. The judge, in most cases, will require that the defendant attends a domestic abuse counseling program for a year. Moreover, the defendant may serve a maximum jail term of one year, complete several hours of community service and pay a hefty court fine of up to $2,000. You can also get released by paying a bail bond of $5,000.

If convicted of severe domestic abuse or deliberate infliction of corporal injuries on a spouse in contravention of California Penal Code Section 273.5 PC, the defendant might face a four-year prison sentence.

If you have faced similar charges before, the court might increase your bail amount to suit the county’s current bail schedule.

The judge may also issue a protective order. You can also get informal probation of up to three years.

If the defendant owns a firearm, he will have to surrender it to the court. For a specified period determined by the judge, he will not be allowed to possess any firearm. With this conviction, it might be difficult for the defendant to pass through some licensing boards. This is chiefly because this criminal record is likely to come up when conducting background checks.

A charge of this sort may bar a person from working in various fields, including ones that require them to care for children or perhaps the ailing.

Conditions of Probation

If the preceding judge grants you probation, the court will require you to:

  • Complete a batterer’s program for at least one year.
  • Refund the victim all the expenses determined by the court to result from the defendant’s conduct directly. The costs might include counseling and any other cost incurred.

What Happens If You are a Foreigner?

When facing a criminal charge, it is almost impossible to conceal one’s nationality. This means that you will have to face the authorities as a foreign citizen. If you are accused or arrested for domestic battery offense, you risk deportation from the United States. However, with the services of a great lawyer, you may overcome the charges.

Domestic Battery Trial

Incidents of domestic battery do not go to trial. For those that do, it is a judge that presides over it. These are Bench Trials. Such suits have their good and evil. In most cases, judges who have presided over many cases will decide based on the law or fact rather than emotion, which controls the juror.

In some cases, the judge might find himself in a compromising situation. Consider, for instance, the instance when someone files the Motion to Suppress. The judge who rules on the exclusion of evidence is the same one who will either acquit the defendant or pronounce him guilty.

Expunging/ Sealing from a Domestic Battery Charge

First off, it is possible to seal or expunge a charge in Fresno. However, the possibility of expunging from a domestic battery case rests on the closing of the case. If the accused pleads guilty to the crime, then this course is not possible. If you are not found guilty, the judge could seal your case. The same case applies if the attorney gets his client a withhold of adjudication.

If arrested but the state makes no formal charge, the court will drop the case; hence the case can be expunged. If the judge dismisses the case, then you can also have expungement eligibility.

Many people believe that if they do not get convicted, then they are factually innocent. It is unfortunate that in California, the principle of not guilty until proven guilty is not applicable. It, therefore, means that your record of guilt remains intact until you get a seal on the charge. The best way to explain it all lies in not being guilty does not mean you are innocent.

People often get arrested for crimes they did not commit. Sometimes, however, the police get it wrong. They misidentify suspects because of difficulties with eyewitnesses or because of their own mistakes. Or sometimes people are arrested but not convicted of the crime - either because there’s not enough evidence or witness testimony or because the authorities can’t be bothered to bring them to trial.

In other words, failure of conviction or not being guilty does not somehow indicate that an individual is innocent of a crime they still may have committed.

If you were arrested for a crime but never charged or convicted, you have the right to have your arrest record sealed. To seal your arrest record, you must fill out a petition, called a “Petition for a Name-Seal,” to the judge who handled criminal cases where you got arrested. The judge will then review your petition and supporting evidence and decide based on “the innocence of your conduct.

Under California law, it is up to the petitioner to prove no reasonable cause for their arrest. This step of the process requires petitioners to gather evidence and submit it with their application. These include affidavits, witness statements, police reports, or any other relevant and reliable evidence. The more proof you provide, the higher your chances of success. Your attorney will help you through the process considering its complexity.

While all criminal cases present unique issues of guilt or innocence, domestic violence cases are not easy to overcome. When victims of domestic violence come forward about their abuse, judges are more likely to scrutinize the alleged offender’s actions under a microscope. There is a higher burden of proof of “factual innocence” for these cases, meaning more evidence is required to show that there was no abuse or that any potential abuse by the petitioner was in self-defense.

Judges are trained professionals who hold the records of thousands of people in their hands. They don’t want to be responsible for letting a criminal go free — which is why they take every precaution to ensure that their arrest record sealing orders work as planned.

Unfortunately, a judge will not accept a petitioner’s word alone to prove factual innocence. In light of this dilemma, the affidavit from the petitioner must include statements from a witness or witnesses who can vouch for the petitioner’s accuracy and honesty. However, the judge is likely to view these testimonies skeptically since the petitioner’s statements might be self-serving to clear up his name.

Essential Considerations when Expunging a Domestic Battery Charge

If you’re considering filing a petition to seal your arrest record in Fresno, there are crucial factors you should keep in mind. If the judge grants your petition, this means that specific details of your arrest or charge will be kept confidential.

You won’t have to disclose this information when applying for jobs, pursuing higher education, or engaging in other activities. Although it’s not impossible to seal your arrest records, the law gives judges complete discretion to deny petition filings.

Here are the factors to consider:

  • Police reports, arrest reports, and statements of witnesses made to police at the time of arrest since judges give such great weight. The judge can admit these documents as evidence without further testing of their accuracy or reliability.
  • Whether or not the accused used a weapon in the commission of the crime.
  • Availability or lack of injuries on the defendant or the alleged victim.
  • If the offense is a misdemeanor or felony.
  • The outlook of the criminal history of both the defendant and the alleged victim.
  • Whether there is a language barrier between the petitioner or victim and the law enforcement.
  • Previous incidents of domestic battery calls, restraining orders, arrests, or convictions of the defendant or victim.
  • The petitioner’s or victim’s documented history of unreliability or untrustworthiness.
  • Community involvement and employment.

Related Offenses

Here are some other charges that are similar to domestic battery:

Assault

Assault is defined in California Penal Code 240 PC as “an unlawful effort, along with a present ability, to execute a violent injury on somebody else’s person.” Simple assault is a misdemeanor carrying a penalty of up to six months in imprisonment and a fine of $1,000.

Intentional Infliction of Corporal Injury

(a)Any person who purposefully causes corporal injury to a plaintiff described in subdivision (b) is guilty of a felony, and upon a guilty verdict, shall be punished by detainment in state prison for between two to four years. He can also face imprisonment in a county jail for not over one year, or by a maximum fine of six thousand dollars, or by both imprisonment and fine. This is per California Penal Code 273.5.

Battery Causing Serious Bodily Injury

Penal Code 243d describes this form of battery as touching or hitting another person in a harmful or offensive manner, leading to severe injury to the other person. The crime may be charged as a misdemeanor or a felony depending on the circumstances and the severity of the injuries.

Sexual Battery

Sexual battery is defined as "having to touch an intimate part of another individual while that individual is illicitly bound by the defendant or a collaborator, and if the touch is made against the individual's consent and for sexual stimulation, sexual enjoyment, or even sexual abuse," according to California Penal Code 243.4.

Find a Fresno Criminal Attorney Near Me

The law does not take crimes like domestic battery lightly. It is even worse since the victim can not drop the charges. You, therefore, need to hire a defense lawyer who has prowess in handling such charges. It would help if you had an attorney who would take you through the case and the appropriate strategies to ensure your freedom. Even if you get convicted, the attorney can negotiate a lesser sentence.

The California Criminal Lawyer Group has handled similar cases successfully. You don’t need to look any further. Call us today at 559-712-8377 for us to start working on your defense.