Can I Be Charged with Domestic Battery

My question involves criminal law for the state of: Florida

3 nights ago me and a girlfriend got into an argument at her home, i was intoxicated. I left and she followed me to my home saying she wanted to get her stuff. While at my home as she got her things but came back into the house extremely mad, she wouldn't leave and kicked a door. When she did this I grabbed her by the arm and shoulder and moved her to the door and outside. I know it left a bruise. I have not been charged with anything but am worried. Any advice would be appreciated.

Best advice at this point is to keep the phone number of a criminal defense attorney in your wallet for a while. If she decides to file a police report and particularly in light of a bruise, odds are pretty good that's enough for a warrant to be issued for your arrest. Until/unless that happens, there's not much TO do.

Your tax dollars pay for 911 service and police. Next time you're having an arguement with someone who won't leave your home, take advantage of them. Putting your own hands on someone else ALWAYS exposes you to risk of arrest.

Thanks for your reply. I guess it doesn't matter that once outside she hit me 4 times leaving bruises also. Thanks

Does the fact that she didn't file it right away have an effect on the charge?

Thanks

The time she files (if she does) is really irrelevant. I have seen woman file charges a month later and telling the police they were in fear of their life is why they didnt file right away. Dont worry to much. You could also file a warrant against her for hitting you. It is really a guessing game

Thank you for the reply. I guess I'm an idiot for thinking that if someones is in your house doing damage and won't leave that it's alright to make them. Stupid.......stupid.

I'm a little puzzled that some one could file a month later with no physical evidence and generate a warrant. I know dom. violence is serious and people die from it...............but how does the law support that. Someone could just say "oh he battered me" and they would start a file. WOW!

This is a story about what happens in Florida to men who are accused of domestic violence. About 6 years ago, a girlfriend and I lived together for a year. We broke up, and she moved into another apartment. While we were living together, her car had broken down, and I had been letting her drive my second car while she was awaiting repairs. She had also been using a second cell phone on my Nextel account. (Trust me, I am not rambling- this is all important later)

When she moved out, I turned off the cell phone and I asked for my car back. She refused. I called the cops, they told me that since I had given her the keys, it was a civil matter. They refused to get involved. I didn't know where she moved to, so my car was gone. A month later, I saw the car parked at the mall, but there was a "club" on the steering wheel. I had it towed to my house. The cops came to my house and threatened to take me to jail for "stealing" my own car. So much for the cops not getting involved.

The next day, there was a sheriff's deputy at my door with a domestic violence injunction, ordering me to appear at a hearing a week later. At the hearing, she produced a statement that I had been beating her while we were together. No proof, no witnesses, no police reports, no medical records, no marks on her, no corroborating evidence of any kind, just her say-so. It turns out that there is a "domestic violence victims advocates office" at the court house that coaches these women in what to say, and makes sure they get sympathetic judges.

While in court, she began crying, and told the judge that I had taken away her phone, and that I had taken back my car, and left her with no way to get to work. She also told the judge that she was afraid of me because I owned a lot of guns. This infuriated the judge, and he ordered me to turn my guns in to the police, revoked my concealed weapons permit, and ordered me to provide her with a car and a phone.

He also said that since my 2 jobs as a paramedic could potentially bring me near her, that I was prohibited from going to work. One job was willing to work with me, the other one fired me the next day.

My attorney pointed out that we were never married, and the car was mine. The judge told him to sit down. Luckily, the attorney had prewarned me about the anti-gun attitude of the judge, and I had sold all of my guns to my brother in law two days earlier. Since this was not a final judgment, we could not appeal. The judge also said that my taking away "her" car and phone was a kind of violence, in that I was using my financial influence and the threat of firearms to control her.

For the next five months, we had numerous hearings, and I got one of my jobs back. I had to endure her showing up everywhere I went. I started making sure I had witnesses wherever I was, so that she couldn't accuse me of anything. I hung out with friends and family, so that way it wouldn't be my word against hers.

It would go like this: I would be at a sports bar owned by my partner, and she would show up, and call the police. Since I was there first, they couldn't arrest me, but they would make me leave. She would go grocery shopping at the store across the street from my house, and tell the cops I was watching her from my window, and they would come over and hassle me. She called the cops and told them her doctor's office was in my mom's neighborhood, and they would even throw me out of my mom's house, and make me leave until she was finished at the doctor.

One night, she called me and told me that the whole thing would go away if I paid her $10,000 in cash, and let her keep the car. I refused. My attorney was finally able to trip the judge on a legal technicality, and got him recused from the case. With a new judge, we got the whole thing thrown out, and I got my car back. By the time I got it, it had been damaged by some sort of tool.

So, several thousand in legal fees, and I finally got my permit and guns back, along with one of my jobs. I learned that the system favors women. When men abuse women, the use their fists, and when women want to abuse men, they use a lawyer and the courts.

The kicker? Last month she sent a request to me to be my friend on "Facebook."

Wow........what a story. I feel for you man, but I'm glad it finally got worked out. This is something I've been made painfully aware of even through my divorce proceedings. It does favor women,no matter what. Thanks I'm going to save this and show my guy friends.

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Quoting 888888

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Thank you for the reply. I guess I'm an idiot for thinking that if someones is in your house doing damage and won't leave that it's alright to make them. Stupid.......stupid.

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A little melodramatic, don't ya think?

You have a legal right to defend yourself in most instances ... you don't have a legal right to attack someone. If you used reasonable force to remove her from the home and your state permits this, then you likely woul dnever go to trial. Could you be charged with injuring her? Sure. Would you be convicted? No way to say for sure.

Of course, you can also get on the phone right now and report the assault and four bruises she left on you. Sometimes he (or she) who calls first gets to play the role of victim. On the other hand, if you call then the police will almost certainly talk to her ... and if she comes up with a tale that says you attacked her and SHE was defending herself, then your report could backfire.

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I'm a little puzzled that some one could file a month later with no physical evidence and generate a warrant. I know dom. violence is serious and people die from it...............but how does the law support that. Someone could just say "oh he battered me" and they would start a file. WOW!

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Reporting a crime and prosecuting it are different matters. While she could report it and the state might find sufficient evidence to support an arrest and/or a criminal filing, this does not guarantee that the DA will take it to trial if no deal is reached. The state still has to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.

If you really think she is going to call the cops on you, then you might consider not talking to the cops and consulting an attorney ASAP.


- Carl

Trust me Florida is probably the most "socialist"................"it can't be my fault" state right behind California. I'm sure the laws on the books here are not going to support a man trying to keep his property being damaged no matter how light the force. I did speak with an attorney.

We just voted in an amendment that allows a person to use whatever restroom they want based on their "sexual preference"............Nothing has happened thus far w/ this.........probably won't. If she had been stealing and in the house I could have shot her though. One good law on the books.