Legal Question in Criminal Law in Missouri

Domestic Violence Case

My wife and I got into an arguement back in 2005 because I told her that I had cheated on her. She got mad and we started fighting and I slaped her and told her I was leaving until things cooled down. She chased me out the motel we were staying at and fell down some stairs and got bruised up.

I left and came back about a day and a half later.

I later found out that I was charged with two feloney counts of domestic violence against my wife in MO. when I got pulled over for speeding in KS in Dec. of 06.

I hired an attorney but she didn't seem to do much. My wife and I never split up and I was never arrested for it or even knew I had charges against me.

My wife told me she tried to contact someone in the prosocuters office stop the police from filling but no one ever contacted her.

We live in OH and couldn't afford to go back and forth for court so my attorney told me to ask for an SIS and I was put on probation for 5 yrs.

My job requires me to travel all over the country and I need to know if I can get the case reopened and fight this.

Because we never saw the pictures the police took and my wife even wrote a letter to the court that she lied about me beating her but they didn't care.

What should I do?


Asked on 8/21/07, 1:35 am

2 Answers from Attorneys
Edward DiCato Edward DiCato Attorney at Law

Re: Domestic Violence Case

You could request to withdraw your entry of plea. It would then be up to the Court to decide

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Answered on 8/21/07, 11:51 am
Michael R. Nack Michael R. Nack, Attorney at Law

Re: Domestic Violence Case

In order to get an SIS you had to enter a plea of guilty. I doubt that you would succeed in getting that plea set aside and the case reopened, although there is a procedure for attempting to do this. The fact that your wife decided that she didn't want you prosecuted is of no real consequence. The name of the case was "State of Missouri vs. [You]", not "Your Wife vs You". The prosecutor could prosecute the case no matter what your wife says, and could even subpoena her to testify at trial against her will if need be. I would suggest that you might be better off trying to get off of probation early. In many of the Counties where I practice regularly, the Judge will entertain a Motion to release the defendant from probation early, if the defendant has served a substantial part of the initial term of probation with no further problems. There is no guarantee of sucess, but I have won quite a few of these with the proper set of facts. If the MIssouri case was in the Eastern part of the State, you may call me for a consultation.

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Answered on 8/21/07, 11:56 pm


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