Assaulting an officer is a serious crime. Not only are officers seen as the protectors of their community, they are also an integral part of the justice system. An assault on officers is often seen as an assault on that system which is why you should call an attorney if you have assaulted an officer. A charge of this magnitude needs to be handled with the sensitivity and intelligence of a skilled Fredericksburg assault lawyer. A local assault lawyer will have the knowledge of the Fredericksburg assault on an officer defenses necessary to build your case.
When one is looking at Fredericksburg assault on an officer defenses, it always comes down to intent. If there was no intent to harm then a person does not have an intent to assault. There is also knowledge. If the individual knew the person was a police officer or had reason to know that the individual was a police officer, then a person will have a defense.
The mitigating factors are going to come down to the client’s criminal history, their record, and the positive things they are doing in the community, whether they are a student, volunteer in their community, et cetera. All of those things are always going to be mitigating, including the family coming to court to show support for them.
One can use the facts to one’s advantage and also when one is dealing with people’s upbringing, how they were brought up, what they know, what they do not know, what they have seen, what they have not see, and the lives they have had, these can all be used to keep a jail sentence down to that mandatory minimum six months or it can be used in negotiations to get the Commonwealth to reduce the charge from a felony to a misdemeanor.
With an assault on an officer case, there is the unwanted touching of an individual with the intent to do them harm and a person has to have reason to know or that they should have known that the person was a police officer. The way in which they prove these cases is similar to assault, what they are going to normally use is testimonial evidence, most of the time a person is not going to have a lot of pictures unless it is something extreme like bruising, biting, or something along those lines.
They are going to use the testimony of the officer who was assaulted, who will tell their account of what happened. There is typically a witness or two, one of the witnesses being the officer who was assaulted, and the other witness is going to be either their partner or somebody who may have seen it, they do not need other witnesses because the officer’s testimony is seen as enough.
These cases are complicated but simple at the same time and do not involve a lot of witnesses. For the most part, it is one officer telling their side of the story and then most of the witness are going to have to come from the defense to negate one element or another of the crime itself but in these cases, it is going to be one officer telling the court or the jury exactly what happened and how it happened.
Assault on an officer cases are not heard much differently from other assault cases. The only time that they may be heard differently is if the alleged victim is a judge or a prosecutor, in that case, they have to bring in special prosecutors in transfer venues or bring in special judges to hear the actual case because all of the other people are way too involved so there is a risk of impropriety and conflicts of interest.
They are treated relatively seriously, depending on the case itself, but most of the time assault cases are taken with a grain of salt, it is just a thing that happens that must be seen through unless they are the more serious brands of assaults. But most assaults are not that serious, it is just people complaining about somebody else pushing them and all cases are taken seriously but in the big scheme of things, assault cases are going to be a lower level case that just happens.
If the officer in an assault on an officer case sustains an injury, the charges could be elevated to aggravated assault. If there is no injury at all, then the chance of the Commonwealth taking the case seriously is lower. When you have people who are actually injured, whether it be a broken bone, a bruising, or otherwise, it is going to elevate the charges to aggravated assault. At that juncture, it is imperative that you call a Fredericksburg attorney. A local lawyer will have existing knowledge of which Fredericksburg assault on an officer defenses will be most useful in your case.
Northern Virginia Criminal Defense Group
