Felony Aggravated Assault Charges
My question involves criminal law for the state of: Maine
My fiancee and I got into an altercation in November of 2008. I posted a thread in the restraining order forum to help with getting the no contact order dropped. We had both moved up to Maine from New Jersey and had been bouncing around some friends houses for a while until we settled into a hotel efficiency in the fall. I was 5 months pregnant at the time, and that night we had gotten into an argument because I did not want him drinking since I couldn't and he had gone and drank an entire 12 pack. I was very upset with him, and he tried to talk me into going out to a friend's house to calm down and relax but I knew there would be alcohol there and it would just piss me off even more. After talking for about 2 hours he guilted me into letting him go to our friends house by himself under the condition he would be home at a certain time and I wouldn't have to go pick him up. Well, of course he called me up an hour late saying he couldn't find a ride and I was livid. I picked him up at our friend's house and found him so drunk he didn't know his own name. He was trying to get some of our friends to fight him when I showed up, but being pissed, I ended up getting in his face and tried to pick a physical altercation with him. We drove back to the hotel room and he passed out. While he was sleeping I started to write him a letter making up a story that he had hit me in the car on our way home in hopes it would shock him into not drinking anymore. He woke up when I was halfway done with the letter and tried to use the bathroom on our bed, and I flipped out. I tried to drag him into the bathroom and started hitting him and calling him names and attacking him. In turn he fought back, and him being twice my size inflicted a lot more damage to me than I did to him. Things got out of hand and the fight spilled into the hallway of the hotel. He threw me against the wall and choked me in front of not just the hotel employees but 4 police officers who had to tase him to get him to let go of me. In the end I had a split lip, a broken finger, a torn ligament and bruises all over my neck. The baby was fine, but I didn't things would escalate the way they did. I was afraid of getting in trouble at first and wrote a false statement implicating him. I refused to press charges, so the state pressed them instead. Both parties want the no contact order dropped and have since the day after the fight, but despite his lawyer filing a motion to amend the bail the prosecution did not grant it and we're waiting on a trial date for taking care of that. I felt horrible about lying and recently sent a letter to the prosecutor explaining my original fears and retracting my statement and giving a statement of the actual accounts of that night. I haven't heard anything back yet, and I sent that almost a month ago. There are witnesses from the party that will verify my details for the part that happened at the party, and numerous people are willing to testify on his behalf that this behavior is completely out of character for him. I've attacked him many times in the past, all he's ever done is try to restrain me, but like I mentioned he was quite intoxicated and didn't even know his own name. He's facing a felony charge of aggravated assault against a pregnant person, a domestic violence charge and a misdemeanor assault charge. He had a psych evaluation done by the State forensic psychologist who deemed that now he is stable, but at the time the combination of being off his meds and highly intoxicated makes him not legally responsible for his actions at the time. Since the state has realized there's no way I'll testify against him, they don't let me in on anything going on with the case, and I've gotten many emails from the Victim/Witness Advocate telling me that any input or opinions I have need to go through him. I'm sorry, but I just don't trust anyone working for the state right now, and I know legally they can't tell me I'm not allowed to contact the prosecutor directly. My fiancee has been bailed out, but I still cannot contact him. The prosecutor has said she is not willing to make him any deals, and honestly this is the biggest news this small town has had in a while. They really want to see him hang for this, the maximum they can give him is 30 years and I think that's what they're going for. He has charges in New Jersey for misdemeanor drug possession, and an assault charge in New Mexico that should have been closed long ago since it happened when he was 11 and the charges were allegedly dropped (i think they just haven't closed the case yet). Other than that he has no violent history, this has never happened before and I know it will never happen again. What are the chances of him getting at least the felony charge reduced? And would the fact that he was off his meds and drunk combined with the state now knowing that he was attacked and provoked first help him any? I just don't want to see him in jail for something that was my fault, I want to put this behind us and start our family.
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