Legal Question in Criminal Law in Washington

Re: suspended sentence

If I understand your situation correctly, you are currently charged with violating RCW 26.50.110(4) - committing assault in violation of protection order. This statue elevates a simple assault to a felony if it was committed against a person for whom a protection order was filed.

I assume that your case involves domestic violence (DV).

Generally, if you are in fact going to have a conviction on your record, a gross misdemeanor is much more preferable to a felony. A felony conviction will result in the loss of your civil rights - to vote, to serve elected office, to serve on a jury and to possess firearms. Five years after successful completion of probation these rights can be restored (5 yrs. after conviction/release for firearm rights). More importantly, a felony conviciton will cause exceptional hardship when seeking employment.

A gross misdemeanor will not result in the same employment problems, nor would you lose your core civil rights. You would still lose the right to possess firearms, but could regain that right 3 years after the date of conviction or release from custody, whichever is later.

A suspended sentence means that the court will impose a certain number of days in jail and/or fine (maximum for 4th Degree Assault is 365 days and $5000 fine) and you would only have to serve part (or none) of the sentence. For example, you could be sentenced to 365 days in jail and have to serve 30 days; the balance of 335 days would be suspended.

The other type of sentence is a deferred sentence. The only difference is that upon succssful completion of probation, you could ask the court to withdraw your plea and have the case dismissed. If dismissed, you could then claim that you have not been convicted of the offense.

To vacate a conviction after a suspended sentence, you must have complied with the conditions of the judgment and sentence and have spent 3 years in the community without being convicted of any new offense. For DV offenses, you must wait 5 years before seeking to vacate the conviction and can only do so if you have no prior DV conviction.