Can you be arrested for domestic violence if you defend yourself??

Question

If you did not start the physical fight, but defend yourself and fight back. Can you be charged? Also, if you are charged and the other person testifies on your behalf that you did not become phisical, but tried to defend yourself can the charges be dropped?

I will add, the man attempted to flee three times but was not able to, was continuously hit, kicked, and pushed down. He defended himself once the police arrived, and was arrested from what they observed. Now the female, a black belt in Karate, mind you. Says that she will testifily that he was infact tring to defend himself. She also wrore a letter to the D.A. about the incident, stating her involvment.

Answer 1

If you are male and defend yourself against a female, it is almost inevitable that you will be arrested for domestic violence. Some law enforcement instructors warn that you should not defend yourself physically in any way against a female, that you should simply try to escape and then should completely sever the relationship. If you are even charged with domestic violence you may lose your right to own firearms and suffer other consequences.

Regardless of what is said, if the other party has a bruise, you can be charged by law enforcement.

Answer 2

Here's a typical morning for me: I find a pile of police reports on my desk with stickies marked "In Custody." I sort through the DWI reports, the Meth-Possession reports, the miscellaneous reports, and then put the Domestic Assault report on the bottom.

After drafting all the other criminal complaints, I get to the Domestic Assault matter. These are either really easy or extremely hard to deal with as a prosecutor. So I usually deal with them last.

In approximately 90% of the domestic assault reports I recieve, both parties are either drunk or high. So neither have a very good chance of accurately remembering what happened. On top of that, most appear ignite from a mutual argument which gets elevated into physical confrontation. I have no idea who started it, who initiated the physical aspect of the matter, or what happened after that. The responding officers will look at injuries and combativeness of the parties on scene and make an arrest decision to the best of their ability. Do they sometimes get it wrong? Absolutely. But their main objective is to diffuse a hostile situation and remove one of the parties. They look for the aggressor and arrest. That is their job.

The problem is the other type of Domestic Assault. This typically involves a guy who beats the hell out of his partner routinely. The victim in these types of cases becomes psychologically transformed in many ways. She will call 911 for help, but after he is arrested, she changes her story and demands that the charges be dropped. She often blames the police and the prosecutor because she is trapped in a vicious cycle because she loves the imbecile and fears him.

Police and prosecutors can't know which scenario they are dealing with. And legislators keep enacting laws which make the consequences of domestic assaults harsher and harsher.

It's a mess. My suggestion is to remove yourself from any relationship with a woman who has either a substance abuse issue or an anger management issue. On the other hand, if you have those issues, you should probable not put yourself into a vulnerable situation until you deal with such issues.

I wish I had more answers, but that's the way it is right now...

Best of luck.

Answer 3

I have to agree with the other person, if trying to defend yourself with a woman, then you just need to leave, you can't win. If the police officer takes you under arrest it would be very difficult to prove anything else. I hope that your witness has a good police record, that may help, get the charges dropped. Stay away from this woman, it will only cause you problems

Answer 4

Well you can be arrested for anything they want but they must prove that you committed the crime. Now if the real attacker confess that would be better. But if she lies just to save your skin it will be worst for you; some sates don't need the wife to press charges, the sate can do it without her help (because they know some wives are afraid to press charges).

In self defense you can be arrested if you used much more force than the one needed to avoid the attack (like sending to a hospital a 5 feet tall, 100 pound woman if you are 6 feet tall, 200 pounds hulk; did you get the picture?).

But according to your story I see not much problem if the other person testifies on your behalf (telling the true).

Answer 5

First off, are the two people involved in a relationship?
Secondly, technically no, charges would be dropped.
Every person, whether man or woman has the right to defend themselves from an attack. I have seen 300# guys get their asses handed to them by 90# girls.
Much of the what the police take into consideration is as you said.....the girl is a black belt. What the police recommend is that either a guy leaves if possible (this applies to women too) or restraint of the attacking party.

Answer 6

Can a person be arrested....heck in most jurisdictions these days arresting 1 or both parties in a domestic violence call is mandatory!

Several years ago my dad was sitting in his car and I was standing outside on our farm property. The car was also on our property. A woman that my dad had been seeing was upset that he didn't want to see her any longer. She came up and started hitting him in the face and he just sat there and didn't defend himself for several reasons...one was because he was physically impaired and had difficulty moving.

So I stepped in between them so she couldn't hit him any longer. I just stood there with my hands in my pockets since I knew defending myself might hurt her and besides...at 6 foot and 180lbs I doubted she could have hurt me any way.

Well she finally left and not 20 minutes later the sheriff shows up because this nut case claims I assaulted her. Luckily for me the sheriff knew my family and took my word that all I did was stand in the way of her hitting my dad. He did tell me though that even just standing in her way could cause me legal problems. If it happened today I have no doubt I would have been placed in handcuffs and escorted to jail....simply for defending my dad.

Answer 7

Yes, you can be arrested for anything if a police officer has probable cause to believe the crime occurred. But conviction has a higher standard.
Each state will have its own version of the law of self-defense. Biologically, men have superior strength and (generally) the size advantage. So unless the woman was Lara Croft attacking Mini-Me, the self-defense route probably won't fly.
And within your question, it is plain to me that this is once again another couple that resorts to violence on each other, then spins their fights into miminalizing lies where no one is to blame. This kind of crap puts responding law enforcement into unnecessary danger, clogs our courtrooms with junk cases, and seems altogether unstoppable, crime or not. They need to split.

Answer 8

I assume the police have some evidence and probably a sworn statement. If the person commits perjury they are likely to go to jail?

Sounds like classic domestic violence to me! Someones needs to get some counseling and anger management counseling!

Answer 9

It is always possible to get charged, however, it's up to the state, city, or county (whichever one is responsible for prosecuting this case) to prove that one is guilty. Usually, the main witness of a domestic case is the "victim." If the victim will testify you aren't guilty, then there isn't much of a case and you have a chance of the case getting dropped. (It's not guaranteed, however.)

If the "victim" originally gave a statement to the police that you did assault him or her, and then tries to retract that statement, she may be opening him or herself up for false info charges.

Email me via my yahoo answers profile. I'll give you more information.

Answer 10

Under the law, self defense can only be invoked if used to repeal an unlawful provocation. Thus, prove that you are just defending yourself so that charges against you will be dropped.