Legal Question in Criminal Law in Massachusetts

Here is my question, you have a twenty year old six month pregnant women. She gets into a verbal argument with her father, the situation gets heated and the daughter turns and walks away, screaming at the father but nonetheless tries to leave. The father then proceeds to follow the daughter out the door, down the stairs and chases her across the yard. At this point he grabs her by the back of the hair and states "you are lucky I don't kill you" screams some more and eventually lets go and goes into the house. Since this is the second assualt by the father in this pregnancy (first one was never reported to the police) the daughter calls the police as she feels this is unacceptable and the father is arrested for assault. The daughter has a negative juvenile history (run away, defiant etc.) mind you she is twenty now, can this history ever be brought into court and prove that this was a "justifiable assault"? And is there any such thing as a "justifiable" assault?


Asked on 7/31/10, 9:02 pm

3 Answers from Attorneys
ERNEST BIANDO LAW OFFICE OF ERNEST T. BIANDO, LLC

The negative history may be brought into court-however, a person is justified in threatening or using physical force against another when and to the extent a reasonable person would believe that physical force is immediately necessary to protect himself against the other's use or attempted use of unlawful physical force-self defense. The facts dont appear to be a self defense case-the person charged needs to retain an attorney-774-745-0562.

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Answered on 8/06/10, 2:54 am
Joseph Murray Joseph M. Murray, Esq.

Retain an attorney and confide only in that attorney. Good Luck!

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Answered on 8/06/10, 1:16 pm
Dmitry Lev The Lev Law Firm

What took place is more than a mere assault, it is an aggravated battery upon a pregnant person -- a felony punishable by up to 5 years in the state prison. The law defines a battery as an intentional unconsented or harmful touching "without having any right or excuse for doing so." While it is up to the jury to decide whether there was "any right or excuse" -- in this instance it does not seem to me that the pregnant woman's history, no matter what it was, could amount to such right or excuse. The obvious excuses could be self defense, protection of the person from some other harm (including form herself), etc, but I don't see that here. Good luck.

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Answered on 8/06/10, 1:39 pm


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