Legal Question in Criminal Law in Illinois

Question

An owner and a bouncer at a bar have filed a complaint against me for battery. The complaint says that I grabbed the two by the wrists and tackled them to the ground. I was not involved in this incident, it was another person and I saw it happen. I know who the other person was and that person was also charged with this. I am assuming that the owner and the bouncer just put the same charge for both of us since they could not see for whom they were writing their complaint. I was, however, punched in the head and tackled to the ground. I have a court date and am wondering if I should file a complaint against them before that court date. Really, all I want is for all the charges to be dropped. I do not care if they are found guilty assuming I file a complaint against them (I would drop if if they did so), I just want them to drop the charges. What do you suggest I do to have get them to drop the charges, file the complaint before the court date or wait to see if they even show up to that court date?

Thank you.


Asked on 4/25/05, 3:49 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael R. Nack Michael R. Nack, Attorney at Law

Re: Question

The first thing you should do is hire an experienced criminal defense attorney to help you defend yourself against these charges. You should not contact the people who have filed the complaint against you, since that might be seen as tampering with a witness and lead to separate criminal charges against you. If the person who actually did tackle the bar owner and bouncer will testify to the fact that you did not do it, then you may have a decent chance of walking away from this. In most cases, the police will not be interested in taking a complaint from you against the two peole who filed the complaints against you, and filing charges to later trade off against pending charges is not the way things are usually done. If you are located downstate, and would like a free telphone consultation, you may call me at 314-727-2822. If not, I strongly suggest that you contact a lawyer in your area.

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Answered on 4/25/05, 10:35 pm


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