Friend was charged with simple assault Class C Misdemeanor and has witness who will testify

helpintexas

New Member
Jurisdiction
Texas
A friend of mine was picking up her son from her ex-husband at a police station (agreed upon in custody papers) and he claims that she hit him and in doing that also made contact with the child. The police report says the officer took photos of where the accuser was allegedly hit. Also mentioned in the police report was a CPS investigation that my friend was not aware of in any way. My friend has a witness who was with her who will testify that she did no such thing. The accuser was alone. My friend claims that she did take her son from her ex-husbands arms and in no way hurt either one of them. She can't afford a lawyer. She is in the middle of a custody battle and is mainly concerned that if found guilty her ex-husband will use it against her to keep her son away from her. She's worried about his safety and health. He is currently withholding visitation in violation of a court order because he claims he worries about the child's safety. He won primary custody last year due to a complicated set of circumstances. She was the custodial parent for the previous 5 years (the child's life). She has no prior arrests or convictions and doesn't know what she should tell the court or what to do if found guilty. Should she admit to taking the son from his arms? Since he's lying about her hitting him and has no witnesses should she simply say she didn't assault him? She's mainly worried if convicted he'll be able to keep her son away from her indefinitely and she's truly concerned about the boy's health and safety (both emotionally/mentally and physically). Any help is appreciated. Thank you
 
The woman, apparently your friend, needs a lawyer.
She is involved in child custody litigation, on top of her recent criminal charge.
Without a lawyer, she might lose two very important things to most people, her child and her freedom.

There's no magic chant, piece of paper, or legal filing to help her.

Only a licensed, clever, alert, experienced lawyer can do the things she requires to fix her life.
 
She does not have to prove she didn't hit him. The state must prove that she did. A witness statement will certainly help. Was this witness not interviewed by police?

Has she actually been charged with the offense and arraigned in court, or is it just that a police report was made? These are very different events.

I see it as unlikely she would be charged under the circumstances you describe without some evidence of a physical injury. People make reports all the time. Most of them do not result in prosecution.
 
A friend of mine was picking up her son from her ex-husband at a police station (agreed upon in custody papers) and he claims that she hit him and in doing that also made contact with the child. The police report says the officer took photos of where the accuser was allegedly hit. Also mentioned in the police report was a CPS investigation that my friend was not aware of in any way. My friend has a witness who was with her who will testify that she did no such thing. The accuser was alone.

I'm a little confused here. If this occurred at a police station, weren't there cops around? Or video cameras? Isn't that the whole point of having the exchange at the police station?

Should she admit to taking the son from his arms?

Even if I were inclined to say yes or no, your friend would be an absolute fool to act based on information that you obtained from anonymous strangers on the internet. If she's being charged with a crime and can't afford an attorney, she can have one appointed by the court.

Since he's lying about her hitting him and has no witnesses should she simply say she didn't assault him?

Keep in mind that we don't know you and don't know your friend. Nor do we know her ex. Therefore, we have no reason to believe anything about who is and isn't lying. It's also worth noting that you apparently weren't present, so you don't really know exactly what happened.
 
He called the cops after she left and had a police officer photograph where she allegedly hit him. Of course the officer did not witness the incident so there's no way to prove that she hit him unless it was recorded. She has appeared in court and plead not guilty. I would think that the station would have cameras as well, and police nearby. I wasn't there and don't know. I'm simply going on what I was told (which I personally believe to be the truth). It's a class c misdemeanor with a maximum fine of 500 dollars and no jail time, so my understanding was that she is not entitled to a court appointed lawyer. That's what she was told by an employee of the court.
 
Also, she was not shown the photographs of the alleged assault. The city attorney told her she would be able to view them at her trial date. Her court date is this week. (I know - no lectures about last minute help please). Is there anything that she could do to get the date postponed so that she could retain a lawyer (assuming that she would be able to afford one). How often will cases like this where the accuser has no witnesses and the accused has a witness, no video evidence, etc end in a conviction? It seems to me that if no evidence or witnesses can support the accuser, then a conviction would amount to simply taking the word of one person over another (neither of whom are known personally to the court). In addition if I'm not mistaken she wasn't told by the city attorney that she needed to request a jury trial. I'm not sure whether she will have the ability to do that on her court date this week or it defaults to a judge.
 
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A few thoughts:
1. The facts as told to you may not true.
2. The prosecutor is unlikely to have brought the charges without sufficient evidence to support them. Perhaps there actually is video supporting the accusation?
3. Yes, she can still obtain legal counsel. That attorney will know what to do in order to have more time to review and to obtain copies of whatever evidence there is. Information she should already have.
4. If she tries to go it alone she will likely be run over by the prosecutor with procedural rules. I bet her witness won't even be allowed to testify as deadlines for discovery have apparently passed.

If she doesn't want to be convicted she had better hire legal counsel immediately.
 
It's a class c misdemeanor with a maximum fine of 500 dollars and no jail time, so my understanding was that she is not entitled to a court appointed lawyer. That's what she was told by an employee of the court.

That's correct. If incarceration is not on the table, then there's no right to have counsel appointed.

Her court date is this week.

In any given case, there may be lots of "court dates"? What is the purpose of this one? Trial? Something else?

Is there anything that she could do to get the date postponed so that she could retain a lawyer

Maybe. I suggest she call a lawyer now and discuss this.
 
she lucked out. the court screwed up and scheduled it as pretrial instead of trial (pretrial was last month and of course the court told her nothing of how to go about viewing photographs and so on). Now she has time to get a defense together knowing what she needs to do. Thank you to all who responded
 
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