Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: charged with 273.5 A

This is a growing trend. Men getting into physical disputes with their wives or girl friends race them to the phone to be the victim. The police, sadly, do take the easiest route and count the first caller as the "victim." The second laziest route is to assume that anyone with an injury is the victim.

I see a lot of this kind of case. I will be VERY surprised if you get convicted of anything, let alone a felony, if this is handled properly. Though most D.V. defendants are men, I am getting about 1 or 2 out of 10 D.V. clients being women these days.

Assuming you had an arrest-free record before this, you should also keep in mind the possibility of seeking a court order finding you "factually innocent", which will seal up your arrest record after the charges are dismissed.

By the way, I am not far from you, with offices in Terra Linda. Do not talk to the police again until you talk to a criminal lawyer. Make sure that any marks you have are photographed as well. Any bruises show up later?

You may want to review the following articles on my website, and my contact info is there too:

http://lawyer-domestic-violence.com/results.htm

and

http://lawyer-expungement.com/petition.htm

Brian Dinday

Re: charged with 273.5 A

The matter will likely be reduced to a misdemeanor, provided you do not have any prior criminal convictions. And that's assuming that the District Attorney will even file charges against you in the first place. As far as not being read your rights, it is a common misunderstanding by laypersons that when you are arrested, your rights must be read to you. That is TV drama, not real life. Miranda rights must be read to a suspect when two factors coincide: when someone is taken into custody and then questioned about the offense. If you were questioned about the incident and then arrested - generally no reading of rights is necessary. Talk to an experienced criminal defense attorney as soon as possible. If you cannot afford to hire one yourself, the court will appoint a public defender to represent you at the time you are arraigned on the charges.