Legal Question in Criminal Law in South Carolina

The short answer is No, a person does not have to physically cause harm to be arrested and prosecuted for Cdv-Han. The way that the statute reads, there are two particular elements to the crime, and the statutes calls for either or both scenarios. Basically it reads, "causing physical harm or injury." Or, "unnder the circumstances reasonably creating fear of imminent offering or attempting to cause physical harm or injury, with the apparent ability to do so."

Then further down in the statute, it goes on to state, "an assault which would reasonably cause a person to fear iminent serious bodily injury or death."

One of the reasons that statutes like this one cause confusion, is because generally speaking, most people are not familiar with the legal definition of the word, "assault." Most people believe that an "assault" is a word that describes attacking, harming, hurting, hitting, kicking, etc., another person. But that is not correct. From a pure legal definition, an assault is the mere ability and presense to do one of those things to someone. Its kind of hard to explain, but I think I'm doing a fairly good job of describing it.

So when a person is arrested for Assault and Battery, its the actual Battery that amounts to attacking, harming, hurting, stricking, hitting, kicking, etc. The Assault part is the moment right before the Battery. It is the apparent ability to harm someone, along with creating fear in the victim that the person does in fact intend to harm them, or under the circumstances reasonably creates the fear of such harm.

Because this is something that is so misunderstood by most people in the public, I thought I would take a few extra minutes to explain it to you in detail.

Now, there is some good news for you. Criminal defense is strategically based. That means that no two cases are necessarily the same. Defense attorneys in this area of the law have broad descretion on how to handle the defense of these cases. Many people are arrested on CDV charges and what works for some cases, does not necessarily work on other CDV cases,

I point that out because I suspect the circumstances of your particular case just very well might be one of those cases where a certain stragety might be possible and if so, it could very well could lead to a dismissal of the charge. Please understand that these Q & A's are read by other people and therefore, I am reluctant to go into detail on how your particular CDV might be one that an attorney could end up getting dismissed.

If you are interested in calling, I would be more than happy to explain it to you. Please understand that I am reluctant to go into detail on this site, as I have seen too many people read specific answers like what I am referring to in your case, and applying it to their own particular case. That could very easily result in someone basically receiving incorrect legal advise and I cannot take the risk of allowing that to happen.

One other thing that might make you feel better, is that the particular approach that I have taken on these cases, I have a 100% track record of success. That is not a sales pitch. Its the truth. And I can only say that because I am very selective about who I explain this approach to and the circumstances have to be just right before I advise people on how this can be accommplished.

So by all means, please feel free to call. My phones are forwarded in the evenigs if you get this after 5:00. You might have to leave a message, but I'm good about calling people right back. There's an issue of a Preliminary Hearing on this case, since its a felony, so I encourage you to not wait before persuing any of this.

Robert J. Johnston

843-946-0099

[email protected]