Assault and Harassment Charges Filed by a Neighbor

[prettypetty]

My question involves criminal law for the state of: Pennsylvania.

Hello--I am hoping someone can please help me here. We have had trouble with a neighbor for several years now and have been to magisterial court. Once the case was dismissed and the other time, the neighbor did not show up. Around a year ago, the neighbor physically attacked my husband. It was basically a set up. My husband took a punch to the face, then neighbor knocked him down and proceeded to shove him into our hedges, where neighbor maintained a minor cut on the head.

When my husband finally got this guy off of him, he grabbed his phone and started running down the street toward our police station, calling 911. As he was running, the cops pulled up, my husband explained what happened and got into the police car. When they got to our house, they went to see neighbor, who had called an ambulance. Neighbor then "faked" that he was badly injured (believe it or not, I think fake blood was involved, or self-harm) and went off in the ambulance. Cops arrested my spouse, who was released on bail. Husband was asked by smart ass cop, "Why don't YOU have any injuries, if you were attacked?"

At the magisterial hearing, we got a public defender. He warned us that this would most like go to a common pleas court level, which it did. This was last fall. We got two days notice last week that tomorrow (Monday) is a hearing. In past months, we contacted the PD, who promised to update us on our case. A demand for discovery was filed in the winter, and nobody responded to it. Anyway, my husband is charged with criminal assault and harassment. Now, the PD is telling us that even though the DA knows the neighbor is a nut job, and so does everyone else involved, neighbor "insists" on going through with this charade.

PD is trying to push my husband into an ARD or a plea bargain. We feel this is wrong because he did not commit any sort of crime. He didn't even hit the neighbor back! With a plea bargain for a summary offense such as harassment, this will turn up in any kind of criminal background check. Am I right? Because what if my husband wants to change jobs or we want to rent a home where they do background checks.

He just has a got feeling that the whole thing is wrong and he is being railroaded for the sake of the county's convenience. The PD said, "What if you get a jury that goes against you in trial?" Believe you me, the only kind of jury that would believe this neighbor would be some sort of nuts like himself.

I'm wondering if the PD is basically trying to get rid of a nuisance case? Because he did and can shred this neighbor on the stand.

We do not know what to do and the clock is ticking. Please advise, and thank you for listening.

[Mr. Knowitall]

If you know for a fact that no jury would convict, then the answer would seem to be easy -- go to trial and get an acquittal. But I have no such confidence in juries, myself, when it comes to a victim who testifies in court and the defense being that it was a set-up, in which the defendant was tricked to go onto the victim's land, and that the victim supposedly faked his own injury.

If your husband prefers, he can retain private counsel -- or at least consult a private lawyer for a second opinion.