Battery Charge - Is it Self-Defense or Not

ok so heres the deal at a friends house drinking some girl decides to punch me in the nuts repeatedly so i push this girl away and her friend starts punching me in the face repeatedly and we went to the ground and i punched her... left a bruise on her face but i have scars on my neck now we talked it out and made up and the next day i get charged with battery anyy advice??

Get an attorney. You will need one.

You hit a girl in the face and left a bruise.

This was NOT self defense.

yea what makes it alright for a girl to punch me in the face i know it was wrong but women bitch about equality and if your going to hit someone in the face better expect it back

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Quoting junkface223

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yea what makes it alright for a girl to punch me in the face i know it was wrong but women bitch about equality and if your going to hit someone in the face better expect it back

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What an enlightened assailant you are.

It isn't all right for anyone to hit you... but it isn't okay for you to hit back.

Your life was not in danger... you could have just left or, better, called the police.

You, instead, hit a girl. Nice.

Dude, when this gets out, you might as well go gay.

She punched you in the face first? Of course you have the right to defend yourself.

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Quoting 2ecaauhsoj

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She punched you in the face first? Of course you have the right to defend yourself.

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Wait a minute.

No, he does not. He has the right to remove himself from the situation. He has the right to call the police.

If he strikes her when he doesn't need to strike her to survive, he is committing a crime.

She punched him in the face "repeatedly" and then they "went to the ground". I do not infer from that that he had the opportunity to "walk away"

Ones' life being in jeopardy is not required to defend yourself, Your personal safety being jeopordized is all that is required. If he waited until his survival depended on his striking her, at that point, deadly force would be justified.

The laws concerning self defense vary by state. I do not believe that the state was mentioned in the original post. Some states might require there be no avenue of retreat before physical force can be applied even in self defense.

In general, however, if one is being attacked, one can defend himself. However, self defense is an affirmative defense. In other words, it must be asserted and supported it is not assumed.

So, if you are charged, your attorney can argue a claim for self defense provided there is something to back it up.

- Carl

ok i might as go gay cool your as queer as the cop was anyway..... how can i walk away when im cornered in a garage one girl behind me who was punching me in the nuts and the other girl who came up behind me and started punching me in the face and when we went to the ground she was still punching me before i hit her....

Read it three times, still don't get that first sentence. Anyway, were there witnesses that weren't hitting you?

yes i have 2 witness one a girl and one a guy that say i wasnt in the wrong

the girl is bigger then me lol i know its wrong to hit a girl im not proud at all but at what point can i defend myself besides walking away i was pretty much attacked by 2 girls and just because shes a girl im getting ****ed its as simple as that.... i asked the cop if it was a guy i probably wouldnt be in cuffs right now and he said you probably wouldnt be but im pretty sure everybody is the same made up of bones muscle tissue and knuckles that all feel the same across your face

Those witnesses will help, but there is also the chance that all of you might be charged. Bar fights are a royal pain to prosecute. The witnesses tend to line up in two camps - the friends of each combatant on opposite sides with few overlapping details, the witnesses tend to be admittedly impaired, and everyone claims to have been provoked or protecting him or herself.

The DA may offer a deal of some sort of disturbing the peace charge ... or, maybe not. You should consider consulting legal counsel in your un-named state.

Perhaps you'd care to tell us the state you are in and the statute under which you were charged?

- Carl

illinois il take any punishment given to me but im going to fight it...

and the cops wouldnt let me press charges on the girl who started punching me in the nuts "who i didnt hit"

and the cops didnt really care for my side of the story after i told them what happened so i didnt write a statement and the cops said she was defending her friend who punched me in the nuts 5 times

Like I said, bar fights are a pain and the cops and the DAs don't tend to like them.

At this point about all you can do is hire an attorney and argue self defense.

- Carl

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Quoting cdwjava

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Like I said, bar fights are a pain and the cops and the DAs don't tend to like them.

At this point about all you can do is hire an attorney and argue self defense.

- Carl

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It was not a bar fight Carl, it was an internal DV fight.

Even if his state had a duty to retreat policy, this can not always be effected, as if one is also drunk or semi so when attacked, it is not an instant thought to do so or not really a viable alternative. Sometimes retaliation can PREVENT further attack.

If one is grossly overweight, a fast duty to retreat may cause a chase you can't win, and then you may need to defend yourself while exhausted.

This is agreeing with you here, by the way!

I have even seen some home invasion laws, if I am not mistaken, that have a duty to retreat clause, if possible, before deadly force is used, etc.

Its not domestic I have no relationship with the girl it was in a garage in the corner I just wonder if she will use she was defending her friend that I pushed away from hitting my in my nuts... I will just be another statistic to male female violence

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Quoting BOR

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It was not a bar fight Carl, it was an internal DV fight.

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Okay ... remove the public aspect of the bar and replace it with the confinement of drinking in a home. I forgot about the location. But, the idea is still the same ... people drinking and violence happening ... note the sense of shock on my face. :eek:

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Even if his state had a duty to retreat policy, this can not always be effected, as if one is also drunk or semi so when attacked, it is not an instant thought to do so or not really a viable alternative. Sometimes retaliation can PREVENT further attack.

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But, it still falls under self defense. Each state defines this differently. If all is as the OP says, I would say that he has a good claim for self defense. But, a lot would depend on what a judge and jury say about his claim, and the credibility of the witnesses. In my experience, the witnesses at a drunken brawl tend to be all over the place and inherently unreliable. Like I said, there are built in credibility issues - alcohol, friends taking sides, etc.

I'm still curious what state this is in and what code section he was charged with. Perhaps the other party obtained injuries that required hospitalization or some form of medical treatment. That might explain things a little better.

- Carl

it is in the state of illinois it is a class a battery misdemeanor.... the girl had a bruise on her face but i had cuts all over my neck chest and bruises on my arm and the one witness is a fireman and the other witness is a girl that im not really friends with that i know and i have no criminal backround and i am also a fireman/emt and in paramedic school which i dont think helps anything....

If you hire an attorney quickly, you may be able to get the matter dropped before it goes to trial. A lot will depend on the state's case against you, and a lot of that may depend on what the witnesses had to say in the police report.

- Carl

see the thing is there are no witnesses in the police report because she didnt call the cops after it happened she filed charges the next day and when i went in to talk to the cops he didnt care about any witnesses i had

her friend didnt go in with her to press charges to be a witness either so the cops didnt talk to any witnesses

Then see if you can get notarized statements from the witnesses, then provide them to your attorney. He can, in turn, use those to show the DA that this will be a "he said, she said" case (assuming the witnesses side wholly with you) and the case might get dropped before it begins.

- Carl

yea my case is next friday tho

Has your attorney provided you with any direction on the matter?

- Carl