Assault & Battery 28 year old charge

[malverde]

28 years ago my father was involved in a bar fight. He was attacked from behind and swung around and punched the guy who was attacking him. Unfortunately, he had a beer bottle in his hand when he punched the guy. Breaking the bottle, cutting up his hand pretty seriously and putting a fairly good gash in the assaliant's scalp.

At the time he was charged with a flony assault charge. When he went in front of the grand jusry, they refused to prosecut him. The judge, instead, charged him with a lessor crime and a $50.00 fine.

About a year ago, during a background check, he found out the original felony was still pending. He petitioned the court to have the charge removed. Very little of the original records still exist today. As a result, the district attorney offered to drop the original felony if he agreed to Class A misdeomor in the third degree, criminal negligence, causing physical injury to another
person by means of a deadly weapon or a dangerous instrument.

This charge will have an impact on his current job. It is my understanding that this charge didn't even exist back in 1981.

What should we do?

 

[CdwJava]

Your father should consult an attorney. Since it happened so long ago, chances of them making a successful prosecution is slim ... VERY slim. Any witnesses and the reporting officer have likely moved on and will be unavailable, so it may just benefit him to get an attorney who will schedule it for court and see if the DA is serious about pursuing a case that he will almost certainly lose.

Then, of course, there may be a statute of limitations issue. If they sought your father via a warrant or summons and failed to exercise due diligence in trying to bring him in, the SOL may have tolled and they may not even be able to prosecute him anyway.

Yes, he needs to speak with an attorney.

 

[jharris352]

I certainly would not plead guilty to any reportable offense. An attorney will get it dead docketed. It's silly to even consider pleading to anything. There are so many ways to go about getting rid of this charge I could write you a book. Statute of limitations maybe but they brought the charge, certainly speedy trial limitations would apply. The DA should be ashamed of himself.

 

[mightymoose]

Statute of limitations on this is waaaay past. They can't prosecute the offense at this point, so don't help out by taking a plea offer.