Domestic voilence (NOT in the playground): calling all lawyers

[Silence]

Ok, so here's the deal. A friend of mine pushed his mom to the ground a few times after arguments got out of hand. His uncle claims he can be sent to juvi for that.

Is that true? I don't know anything about domestic voilence laws, but I would think that it's not enough to arrest someone.

[draco567]

It depends on what state you are in, if the police were called, and if his mom is willing to press charges. He sounds like in could be in danger of getting in trouble though.

[Serpentine]

At the very least, it's certainly not something he should do... It's certainly possible, and in my opinion should be.

[Silence]

It depends on what state you are in, if the police were called, and if his mom is willing to press charges. He sounds like in could be in danger of getting in trouble though.

Tennessee; the police were not called at the time of the incident, but they might pass charges.

Links to the word of the law would be nice.

[draco567]

Tennessee; the police were not called at the time of the incident, but they might pass charges.

Links to the word of the law would be nice.

Ill take a look around. I only know Colorado law on the subject, due to a certain player for the Broncos having some trouble of the sort.

I would think that if there is evidence of the abuse, he will at leats have to take some anger management classes. Just hazarding a guess.


Link
http://www.lcs.net/mpd/DV_Law.htm

[Bor the Barbarian Monk]

I have played witness to several incidents where the question of assault was brought up. I am NOT a legal experct; this only what I've seen, heard, or experienced. (Spoilered due to unhappiness.)


1: (This happened in Arizona) Mother #1 too mother #2's kids to task. Mother #2 confronted mother #1. #1 didn't want to hear it, and was verbally abusive in her response. #2 tried to be reasonable, and stood in the way of #1 in an attempt to discuss why her kids were being yelled at. That's when mother #1 punched mother #2 in the eye.

When the police arrived, it was determined that mother #2, who was only trying to talk, and had never laid a hand on the other woman, was in the wrong, simply for blocking #1's path. Since #1 hadn't really cared to start with, no charges were pressed.

2: (This happened in NY) While living in a boarding house, housemate 1 (HM1) went looking for a fight with HM2. In an effort to avoid any kind of fight, HM2 retired to his room. HM1 pursued HM2 into the room. Seeing this spiralling out of control, I left the house to summon the police; the only phone available at that hour was a payphone at the end of our driveway.

By the time I returned, the fight was over. HM1 sat on the front steps, both eyes swollen shut, his lip fat and bleeding. HM2 had bruised knuckles. When the police arrived, HM2 was put in handcuffs, despite having done what he could to simply avoid a fight. As the cops put it, "The loser goes to the hospital; the winner tends to go to jail." Thankfully, this was resolved without charges being pressed.

3: (This happened in NY, and I was about 23 or 24 at the time.) Thinking the washing machine at home would be free for the night, I set a load of laudry to wash and then stepped out for a few hours. I came home to find my clean, wet laundry on the dirty basement floor, with my mother's laundry in the dryer. I went to confront her about this, and a shouting match ensued. Next to me was a standing rack where some articles of clothing rested to air-dry. I was so angry that I took a swing at it. (I hit things when I'm angry, not people.) Well, it was a lot lighter than I realzed, and it sailed across the room and struck my mother in the face! :smalleek: This started my mother screaming for my father. My accident, born from anger, became a claim that I'd hit her.

Fed up with the situation and unwilling to listen to this false claim - it was an ACCIDENT - I left the house to go for a brief walk to cool down.

After a stroll around a few blocks, I came home to find a pair of police cars in front of the house. My father sat in the living room, looking like his world had collapsed. As it turned out, he had become so angry with my mother's exaggeration of the situation that he'd shoved her. It was an action taken to get her to shut up and listen, and she landed on the bed...but she wouldn't listen to reason anymore and called the police, claiming she'd now been assaulted by TWO family members.

Those poor cops. They clearly saw what I did was not intentional. They realized my father nothing so terrible, other than to push my mother onto a bed and try to get her to think before opening her mouth. Dad and I had made mistakes...that was it; we were both lacking intent to actually cause my mother harm. Thus, they talked my mother into not pressing charges.

The oddest part of this incident was when one of the cops walked me outside and placed a kindly hand on my shoulder. Pity for me was written all over his face as he said, "Look, Rob...We understand what you and your father are going through here. We really do. What you have to understand is that the law will side with the woman in this kind of situation. If we have to come out here again, we'll probably have to place you under arrest. Understand?" I said I did, we shook hands, and then all the cops were on their way.

A stupid and embarrassing incident over laundry, of all things. :smallfrown:

As you can see, there's no clear-cut definition of what's what. My best advice would be for your friend to keep his hands to himself. No one wins when hands are raised in anger.

[Silence]

Thanks guys. This stuff helped.

He's pretty much figured out a way to dodge any charges, but there's still some sick sh-t going on between him and his mom.

[Mountain_Faerie]

Part of the charges would depend on your friend's age. If he's younger, it wouldn't be called Domestic Violence. He could go to Juvi or state's custody. If he is close to being an adult age, he would probably get some more strict charges.
The other factor is his mother's health. If she has physical or mental difficulties, the repercussions for his aggressive behavior would be much worse.