Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

If there is someone who made a threat to my friend, to relay the message to me, that she wanted to fight me, is there anything I can do legally? If she actually ends up assaulting me, can I press chargers, she is a new mother, would there be a risk of her losing custody of her son because of this?

Then, her desire to fight me is not completely unmerritted, for a period of time, I was dating the father of her son, and in my defense, I was driven to do some stupid things, like email her from a fake email address, calling her ( I guess this could qualify as somewhat harassment) and have since stopped for over 8 months. I do not want to fight her, and think that this is completely something that is immature and only happens in highschool but we are two grown ups, I just wondered if the law had anything to say about it, and if I was no longer protected because I was guilty of previously harassing her (although, no harrassment chargers were ever filed and I have never admitted to doing it to her, all is under her assumption) Her sudden urge is to fight me is probably stemming from the fact that someone has been calling her possibly harassing her again recently, but it is not me.


Asked on 10/04/09, 12:49 am

2 Answers from Attorneys
Edward Hoffman Law Offices of Edward A. Hoffman

It's hard to answer your question without knowing exactly what the woman's message said. If all she did was express a desire to fight you, then I don't see how that could amount to a crime. If she said she was going to attack you, then maybe it would. The answer will depend upon what she said as well as the context. That she had another person relay the message to you might or might not be relevant.

That she has reason to be angry at you does not make it OK for her to do things that would otherwise be illegal. As I said earlier, though, context matters. Your history with her forms part of that context.

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Answered on 10/04/09, 12:54 am
Brian Dinday Law Offices of Brian R. Dinday

If I were you, I would apologize for the past harassment and assure her that you are no longer contacting her or doing anything else and that you have no desire to fight her. An invitation to fight is in effect asking you to agree to fight. If she said for example that you're going to have a fight whether you want to or not, then that is a threat. I suggest trying the apology route first, instead of escalating the mess. You owe her that anyway.

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Answered on 10/04/09, 2:17 pm


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