I live in the state of North Carolina and have never arrested or charged with a crime. This is new to me. We had a workman to refinish a bedroom floor. His work was unsatisfactry and I wanted him to correct it. He refused so I reused to pay him. My wife offered him $100.00 less that the agreed upon price to just go away. This really made him and his wife mad, who was screaming about working at the courthouse and taking us to small claims court. Our answer was please do so. We do not think he should be paid the full amount for a sorry job. They also called us bad names. At this point my wife call communication for a sheriff to come out. She did not use 911 so the sheriff tooks his time. My wife and I got them out of our house and almost into their car. The man begin to shove his wife around because she wanted to go and he wanted to wait on the sheriff thinking the sheriff was going to make us pay. My wife steps back into our house to call the sheriff again. From the living room window she sees his wife get into their car but can not see the husband who has stepped to the side of their car. My wife comes out the back door just in time to see him throw a hand full of rocks hitting me in the face. I got mad and picked up a handful of rocks and call him a son of a blank. His wife had a camera that she had used inside of our house without permission. I believe that she used this camera to take pictures of me. I did pick up a hand full of rock and walking toward their car. I just happened to be more on her side of the car than his and I did call out "You son of a b---". He had thrown hitting me on the side of my head which I have pictures of the cuts with blood. She had immedaitely started backing up when her husband throw the rocks. She stopped about a few feet out on the road and took some more pictures. The sheriff arrived after they had left. He advised that I take out a warrant which is what I did. Now I have a summons to appear before the magistrate for communicating threats. I spoke about 4 words to this woman the whole time they were at my home and those words were " Shut Up!!" She was always screaming. How do I defend myself against a case of he said she said? I do not have the money for a lawyer. Since this is a magistrate do I need a lawyer? What kind of sentance will I get if found guilty? The last thing he said was that he was going to keep us in court and we would miss a lot of work. Can a magistrate case be continued like a judge civil case? Help!! I know nothing!!

