Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

I've got news for you. Pushing you down and causing those injuries is exactly the same crime and just as serious as punching you and causing the same injuries. Probably, nothing would have changed had you told the truth. So the answer is: if you recant, nothing will change, in my opinion.You can ask the stay away to be lifted however. Talk to the D.A about that. By the way, I have some concern with your current story. Pushing you down would be highly unlikely to cause the kind of bruising that would look like you were punched. I suspect the D.A. would have a similar skepticism. As far as your getting into trouble, in 35 years I have not seen a woman prosecuted for lying in a domestic violence complaint and later admitting it was a lie.

I think you ought to think hard about what message you will be sending if you "go to bat" for your son now to try to lift the punishment. Isn't that telling him that his actions were really no big deal and it's "forgivable"? Is that what you want him to take away from all this?

Let me put it this way, if my son were in your son's position, and had done what yours did, and if no courts or police were involved, I would want him in drug treatment, anger management, do a lot of community service to keep his little drug-using hands busy, busy, busy, and have him subject to my supervision to be sure he is not backsliding. So what, I wonder, is the problem?

If you only made false police reports, you would most likely be facing a misdemeanor. If you lied under oath, whether in a written statement or on the witness stand, you could be charged with perjury, which is a felony.

From a practical standpoint, your honesty is probably too late to help your son. He has already been sentenced, so it is too late to withdraw his plea. If he touched you, causing bruises, it probably doesn't matter if it was a push or a punch. The DA is likely to dismiss your changed story as a pathetic attempt of a battered woman to make excuses for her abuser.

You should contact your son's attorney to see if your statement will do any good at this late stage.

If I was your son's attorney, I would probably advise him to stay away from you, order or not. You have already established your willingness to lie to the police to get what you want, and you still seem more concerned with the consequences to to yourself than with doing the right thing.

Your next attempt to "help" him could land your son in prison.