Whether to Press Assault Charges

My question involves criminal law for the state of: New York

a good friend of mine recently got jumped by his younger brother and his brothers friend. as messed up as the situation was, he wants to go forward with pursuing assault charges instead of handling it physically. my friends whole family is speaking out b/c they don't want the younger brothers life ruined over this (aka not being able to get a decent job, etc.). the younger brother wants to enter the marine core, and its assumed that an assault charge would completely ruin any chance of that for him.

the main point of pressing charges is to get the friend involved in the fight in serious trouble, as he already has a record and is on some form of probation, and this would probably get him time in jail (he deserves it, hes a loose cannon and does not follow a positive livestyle in the slightest bit). as pissed angry as he is at his coward of a brother, he'd rather not ruin his life over this, but wants to teach him a lesson.

my advice to my friend was to pursue assault charges, and then to agree to a lesser plea in court, so the brother wouldn't get his future ruined, but the friend who helped him jump my friend would still get in serious trouble(him having a prior record and being on some form of parole). Both of the people being charged are over 18 years of age.

the only thing is im not too familiar with the law in this aspect, and its a pretty unique situation in my experience. is what i'm proposing a possibility? if so, what kind of lesser charge should my buddy be aiming for in court that would acheive the above results? its a bit of a delicate situation, but he's 100% taking them to court as these kids won't learn any kind of lesson otherwise, and we'd all like to avoid the worst case scenario if possible.

let me know what you think, i'll answer any questions if what i wrote was unclear or anything. appreciate any help.

The prosecutor is the person who has the authority to decide what charges to authorize, and what plea bargains to offer. If your friend presses charges, whatever input he is permitted, those decisions will not be in his hands.

It's his choice weather or not he wants to press charges but the da decides what to do. Just because the guy wants his brother to get a reduction in charges doesn't matter,the marines can still she the arrest and the convictions. So if he is arrested and charged with a few nasty things like assault,gang assault (I think either 3 or 4 on 1 can result in this charge,etc and then reduced to simple assault if lucky. The marines still may decide to reject him. I had a friend who was arrested a few times and had about 8-10 charges. He got lucky some were dismissed and some reduced,the end result was only 2 misdemeanors. The marines rejected him because he had so many charges and a few were felonies which probably cost him. Even if your charges are expunged,sealed,dismissed,etc the back round check for the armed forces are gonna see everything.

The cops and da step in when they find out someone break the law,they are not counslelor who work w. you to teach you a lesson and then everyone hugs. The guy could have long standing consequences. I'm not saying they all don't deserve to get arrested but once they do the results are in the states hand. The kid who did all the stupid crap need to avoid those people before they get him arrested for something else.