Amateur Police Investigation Exposed – Jury Finds Client Not Guilty

This case was about a botched police investigation regarding our client, an innocent woman who was falsely accused of battery on a pregnant woman.

This case was tried to a jury by my associate, Lindsay E. Lawrence. The client had been admitted to the hospital for observation. She was growing impatient with the hospital giving her the run around. She was having trouble sleeping and was starving because she couldn’t eat any of the hospital food. She decided to go with her fiancé to the hospital cafeteria.

When they got to the cashier to pay, she was confronted by the cafeteria manager. The client and the manager talked for several minutes regarding the cafeteria polices. The client was told that she was not able to purchase the food from the cafeteria since she was a patient and the cafeteria could not ensure that the food complied with the food restrictions set for her. The cafeteria manager claimed that during the ensuing argument, the client bumped her.

The defense presented testimony from the charge nurse who testified that the client did not intentionally bump the cafeteria manger, which is a critical fact. In order to be found guilty of a battery, there has to be an intentional touch or strike.

There were many inconsistencies. There were a total of five witnesses to the event and none of the witnesses had the same version of events. Furthermore, although there were multiple cameras located in the cafeteria, no camera footage recorded the incident.

The jury learned that the police were dispatched to the scene at the request of cafeteria manager, who was the first person the police interviewed upon arrival. Next, the police met with several other witnesses who were the cafeteria manager’s co-workers. The police met with the hospital security and the nurse attending to my client. The police collected all of these individuals’ conflicting version of what they saw.

By the time the police met with the defendant, it was clear that they had already made up their minds that they were going to arrest my client for a battery without even hearing her side of the story. There was nothing the client could tell the police to change their minds about not charging her with battery on a pregnant woman. The investigation was so flawed that when the police arrived, accompanied by hospital security they did not bother to ask the client’s fiancée what happened, even though he was present for the incident. They didn’t even bother to get his contact information to do a follow up investigation. Nor did they bother to attempt to view the cafeteria surveillance video.

Thankfully after all the evidence and closing argument, the jury acquitted the client and she proudly walked out of the courtroom, exonerated as a free woman. Finally, the client’s story was able to be heard. The truth will set you free!

Superior trial skills, attention to detail and diligent preparation can make all the difference in the final result.​