Assault and Battery:
I can not work one full shift without being dispatched to a PC242. Often I get dispatched to several. That’s the Penal Code for Assault. In legal terms, it is the unlawful touching of another person. In police terms, a majority of these calls are wasted time. An incident that could have easily been avoided.
Battery can be anything from shoving, hitting, touching, or even spitting on someone. The most common type I respond to is when several teens or kids confront each other, and a shoving match or fight breaks out. Suddenly, everyone wants everyone else arrested. It takes a lot of time to sort out what happened, who the aggressor is, and who if anybody goes to jail.
Battery is a misdemeanor offense, which means that unless I viewed the incident personally, the suspect has to be placed under citizen’s arrest by you. (We make the actual physical arrest, but you sign a form stating that you requested the arrest be made, and that you’ll go to court to testify against the suspect).
I stated that a lot of battery calls are a waste of time. Why? Because most always when we arrive, tempers are hot, and people are demanding that someone be arrested. After obtaining the facts, we place the alleged responsible party under a citizen arrest. Sometimes the person arrested wants the other person arrested as well. (It takes two to fight, and sometimes we have to take both parties to jail if we can’t figure out who did what!). Usually when both parties realize that they each could go to jail, they change their minds and state they want to forget the whole thing.
Or after we make an arrest, get all the information, and the victim cools down a bit, the victim states that they do not want to go to court to testify, and that it wasn’t so bad after all. They just want to forget it now. That’s a waste of my time.
On the other hand, some battery calls are legitimate. A lot of arrests are Valid.
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Some examples:
You are out front watering your lawn, washing your car, etc. Your child gets into a dispute with your Neighbors child, and the other kid goes home crying. A few moments later, your neighbor, (who you never really got along with) comes over with a BIG attitude, cussing you out for making his kid cry. You try to explain what really happened but he doesn’t want to listen.
He walks up to you and a verbal argument takes place. Suddenly, your neighbor shoves you backward with both arms, knocking you back over your planter. It could stop there, (still a battery occurred) but you jump up and approach
The neighbor who now swings out at you and punches you in the face. The neighbor then walks away. What do you do? The best thing to do is to call the police. If you chase down the neighbor, attack him to get even, or go to his property, YOU now become the aggressor. If you call the police, and explain that the neighbor came onto your property, and assaulted you, then he will be the only one arrested.
If you are provoked into becoming the aggressor while trying to get even, then chances are that your neighbor might be able to have you arrested too.
There is a difference between defending yourself verses getting even. Everyone has the right to defend himself or herself, but some take it too far. A lot of disputes involving assault or battery can be resolved at the time the incident took place.
Many disputes are caused by misunderstandings or “heat of the moment” differences. These can be resolved with an apology or handshake.
Some are resolved by both parties being in agreement to leave each other alone and police action is not summoned.
Some are resolved with an arrest. Usually, if a person is arrested for battery, they will be cite-released out of the police station in an hour or two, with a court date scheduled a few weeks later where a Judge will hear the case.
If we think the incident will happen again by the suspects release, or if there is alcohol or drugs involved, then the suspect may go to county jail for an extended Stay.
Some assaults are unprovoked, and if property is taken, it might be a robbery. Most disputes start with a verbal argument, which then escalates into a physical fight. If you find yourself in a heated argument, back off and call the police. We would rather respond out to help defuse the situation rather than have to Arrest one, or both of you, for battery on each other. Like I tell my kids, It takes two to fight.
Another type of battery is sexual battery, the unlawful touching of specific parts of another’s body. This can be through the clothing or direct skin contact underneath outer clothing.
An accidental bumping into someone does not justify a claim of sexual battery, but a deliberate touching or grabbing of certain body parts (such as buttocks, breast, crotch, etc.) is sexual battery, and should be reported to police. This type of behavior can lead to more serious crimes if not reported and it is allowed to occur.
Battery or assault incidents are usually minor in nature, with little to no injuries sustained. What gets hurt the most is your pride. A few battery incidents are classified as felonies. This is when someone is severely injured during a beating or assault (no weapons used) if serious injury does occur, a felony charge may be filed.
Just remember that most assaults result from a heated argument or confrontation. If these can be avoided then everyone comes out ahead.
ML
yes i have a ? a friend and i were traveling home from a weekend of gambling, and an hour away from home we noticed that a k9 suv was traveling beside us for more than five mins. Thinking that we were being pulled the driver of my vehicle went ahead and pulled over, up into this point no lights on the police cruiser had been activated, until he sees that we r pulling over.. Upon requesting my license as well as everyones in the car he asked the ? if anyone of us had ever been arrested we lied and said no.. the sherriff at the time also asked why did u pull over, i was just looking at your car that was being towed.. he said it was a nice car.. i told him that i pulled over just because i didnt want him to think i had anything to hide.. well he pulled me out of the car for ?tioning and asked if there was anything he should kno about in the vehicle i told him no, and then that is when he asked me if he could search the vechicle, being one of my constitutional rights i told him no.. So the next thing he does is get his dog out and he begins at the back of the car on the trailer i was towing.. he walks the dog around that car several times with the dog not hitting on it once for any narcotic odors, then he begins walking the dog alongside of my truck which the only view i had of what he was doing was on the passanger side since were were off the shoulder along the interstate, the dog didnt hit once around the passanger side, but when he was out of sight he automatically came back saying that the dog had hit on my truck and that now he had probable cause to search it.. Well they searched my truck for a couple of hours and found nothing, this whole time we hadnt been detained yet, we were all 3 standing on the side of the road with no handcuffs, well he comes back saying that he found a white substance on the floormat which appeared to be cocaine, so he tested it and it was infact cocaine.. my friend that i was with just so happened to be on probation, and so of course i understand why he didnt admit to knowing anything about it, but at the same time that was all that he had which was enough for a felony possesion because it was residue.. well my ? is that if the dog didnt hit on the car i was towing, was it illeagle for him to then begin searching the car on the trailer, the car was locked because the first thing he did was go around and check every door handle, and then he came to us and asked where the keys were, of course we both said we didnt know, but the keys infact were in my console, and then shortly after he began searching the car and that is where he found narcotics, which didnt belong to me but my friend, and so he was arrested and i had to sighn a waiver basically saying that the drugs were not mine and that they had been in his possesion the whole time..i want to kno about the search if that can be thrown out in court.. as well as my waiver that i sighned if they dont subphena me to court i kno that i will not testify against him, but if they do, can i just plead the 5th since basically what i wrote in the statement is incriminating against me as well??
thank you for your time and help
hope to hear from you soon
If I have a warrant in another state and lets say my girlfriend and I argue and she calls the police in the heat of the moment like she always does. Will I be arrested?