Legal Question in Criminal Law in Michigan

Re: Assault and Battery

Spitting on or at someone can constitute A&B, but not always. Assaults aren't limited to punches.

Definitions are critical (see definitions of Michigan criminal terms at www.co.eaton.mi.us/ecpa/define.htm). An "assault" is an unlawful act that places another person in reasonable apprehension of receiving an immediate battery. A "battery" is an intentional, unwanted and forceful/violent touching of another person, or something closely connected with that person. Injuries do not have to result.

Assaults must be intentional, they can't occur "accidentally". And they have to occur with a combination of both an act and a specific intent to cause a result (either to injury someone physically, to embarrass someone, or to put the other person in reasonable fear of injury). Most times, the physical act is easy to prove, but the "intent" isn't. Prosecutors never have to prove "motive", but proving intent does require evidence of why the suspect did what he did. Here, if your friend was angry at me, then the "intent" of the spitting is fairly self-evident.

If your friend spit at me and missed, but was close enough that contact was possible, that's still an "assault" (even though no touching/battery occurred).

If your friend was angry at me and spit in my face, it could be an A&B. Why? When he spit at or on me, he (at a minimum) wanted me to be reasonably apprehensive of being struck by his bodily fluids (that's why you aimed at me) ... he did it intentionally, not accidentally ... and getting hit in the face by his spit wasn't something that I wanted or welcomed. So, all the basic elements for A&B are arguably provable.

As for your friend not having his side of the story heard first, that isn't required before he can be arrested.