Assault & Battery how long will x get for domestic violence battery?

[love72160]

wanting to know how long he will serve. he threw his cell phone at me with my daughter watching. we do not reside together. he is my x. i got a busted lip because of it. this is in florida.....thanks. oh and he has never been arrested before but i had filed a complaint on him years ago for the same..busted lip and the cops didnt arrest him....thx.....amy

 

[Michael Wechsler]

I think that it is likely to say that it is difficult if not impossible determine any results based upon these facts. He was arrested this time for getting mad and throwing a mobile telephone and that is all? You filed a complaint with the police the first time? I don't want to belittle the injury and bad act, but do you think that activity alone, without a prior records, should warrant an arrest and jail time without more? It sounds like there is a lot more going on here that we don't know about. From what I'm hearing it sounds more like a small civil claim for injury caused.

 

[love72160]

replying to michael

michael, an assault is an assault. he threw this phone violently at me, busting my lip. there is no excuse for this type of behavior. he also threatened me the same day. saying, ill get you for this, on and on. this was BEFORE i called the police. an assault is defined in the dictonary as a violent verbal or physical attack. there is no justification for what he did, and he most def deserves some jail time.......amy

 

[jon_]

I want to say that all this in good natured discussion. We don't know many of the facts -- was your injury quite severe or will it heal within the week? Did/does this person have a propensity for violence and intended to cause you serious injury or did a rare occasion happen that drove this person to lose some control, act irresponsibly and do something that he would and should be sorry for? You reported him once before and we don't know the severity and whether it was two months ago or 6 years ago. We also don't know where and how the injury occurred.

What would you expect or want to happen? What kind of jail time -- 24 hours? It sounds like you think he deserves a lot more. I know you are mad and you have a right to be. Two weeks? That could easily ruin a person's livelihood as that person would have to inform work that he/she could not report, etc. Should that happen here? I'm trying to balance reality and practicality here. NY considerts types of assault as Class A misdemeanors meaning a sentence that can be greater than 15 days but no more than 1 year.

A DA deals with rape, robbery, brutal assaults, drug distribution, murder, manslaughter and the list goes on. Unfortunately it costs a good deal of money to incarcerate and generally there is a shortage of space in our prisons. Practically, I really don't know how far a DA would prosecute a person for throwing a phone if it wasn't meant to cause you serious injury and didn't cause serious injury. At the very least, there are civil remedies available to you so that you can punish him in the wallet and that should teach him a lesson. If it did cause you a serious injury then maybe this will go further.

On a side note, under the law "assault" is strictly a verbal threat to cause injury, e.g. "I'm going to strike you now in the head with this baseball bat." Battery is the physical act and they frequently occur together ("assault and battery").

 

[love72160]

appreciate input

hi there, appreciate the insight. he got out of jail with a signature. he will still have to appear in court. i was very upset because i never think anyone should look at any type of assault as slight. he did cause injury, although it was not serious. he has always had a temper. we were aruging about something he did to his daughter that he conned the detective in believing his story over hers and im still very angry about this. i will not go into detail about what he did to his daughter, but it carries a very high jail sentence. i was being kind even letting him see his daughter, and he got angry because i didnt want him in my household. anyways, what i really want him to pay for is what he did to his daughter. one day he will, i know it. but anyways, thanks again for the insight. we were never married and havent resided together for years. the crime he commited to his daughter had no physical evidence, only her taped testimony taken by dept of social services. because of her young age of 4, the detective believed his story over hers. there was also a lie detector given and he passed, but this is no proof of innonence on his part. if you have any insight on this issue, let me know..thx

 

[Michael Wechsler]

What Jon wrote is exactly what I meant in my post and my hunch was correct in that there is a lot more history than your post includes for a first time reader! Most reasonable people don't send a person to jail because they just threw a phone in a fit of anger... there is usually something more to the picture. Apparently you resent this man who may have done something awful to your daughter in the past. You want him to pay for it, although you may hope that the court should also account for his "past crime", which he was never convicted, and enforce a more severe sentence for the assault.

I'd like to see people get thrown in the pen for a cooling off period until they learn to act properly. However, the punishment must not only be appropriate for the crime but also must be balanced against what society dictates for levels of punishment. It's not that I am taking an assault lightly, I'm just stacking it up as to where I see it falling in the list of some DA's priorities and the fact that the court will not consider the "prior crime" to justify a more severe punishment. It is incredibly difficult to apprise any amount of jail time when so many of the facts aren't in front of us as we don't know the specific charges, restraining orders, etc. This happened in your home, which he was present with your permission. Given that and the fact that he was released on his own recognizance, I'd be surprised if he receives significant jail time. I could be very wrong as your jurisdiction may differ.

Jon's point about Civil Court is right on -- some remedies and preventative measures that law provides is to hit him financially. If you can't afford to sue or the damages aren't high enough to sue in Civil Court, you may want to take him to small claims. It costs $5-10, yield up to $5,000 in certain jurisdictions, and can be a very effective way of making the legal system work for you and make people learn from their mistakes!

 

[love72160]

hi michael, well he wasnt in my household at the time of the assault. we were at his place of residence. in fact i was taking him home after a trip to the mall to see his daughter. so that was one point you missed. i hope he will get some jail time because i did suffer injury but i will bring up with the judge what he did to his daughter and how he ""got off on it"" and hope that the judge will think of re-opening the case and viewing her taped testimony. thanks again for all insight...amy