Charged with battery in San Francisco

I was at a bar drinking. I unknowingly was hitting on a woman who's boyfried was in the bar. When I left the bar I was jumped outside by the boyfriend and at least one other of his friends. I was in the jaw and subsequently fell to the ground and hit my head on the concrete. I blocked out for a short period at which time I crossed the street to get away. I noticed that the man who hit me was now also across the street and coming towards me again. At this point I acted in self defence by engaging him. When the cops arrived I had the upper hand and was on the ground "on top of" the guy who knocked me out.

I was charged with battery. The cops took me to jail, wrote me a ticket, let me sit for about an hour and then took me to the hospital. I left the hospital after they gave me a clean slate.

I live in Chicago and I have court 2 weeks from now in San Francisco. I contacted a lawyer who wanted $250 for initial consulation plus $4000 to repesent me. I found this to be ridiculous. I have no prior incidents and don't plan on having another. I don't want a long drawn out trial where I have to spend tons of money on lawyers and airfare back and forth from Chicago.

Any advice would be appreciated.

You either appear or have an attorney appear for you, or, you risk a warrant for your arrest.

If you have any witnesses to support your allegation of self defense, you could likely prevail at trial. But, if it comes down to your word aganst his, then who knows what will happen.

What you describe would have been a felony battery against you ... unfortunately for you, the police acted on what they saw when they got there.

So ... what did the boyfriend's pal do? Abandon his buddy while you were stomping him? That's the part of the story that doesn't make much sense to me ... unless you came back looking for trouble after the boyfriend and his buddy and had "disengaged" and headed back inside.

In any event, no appearance and no warrant will equal an arrest warrant. It is doubtful they will come to arrest you in IL, but a warrant has an ugly way of preventing access to loan and government aid programs for many decades to come.

- Carl