Jury Finds Domestic Violence Client Not Guilty
They say no good deed goes unpunished. That was exactly the circumstances for our client. Our client took in her cousin who was going through a rough patch. She allowed her cousin to live with her and her fiancé. Little did our client know that while her cousin was staying with her she was getting cozy with her fiancé in an effort to kick her out and move in.
Her cousin started plotting how she was going to make her way into the residence. After a couple of months the cousin’s plot unfolded. Her cousin devised a plan where she would allege that our client committed a battery against her. She called the police and told the police that our client had an altercation with her and that it had been physical. Conveniently, this call was placed when our client had left the house to meet up with police to report an incident involving her cousin. When our client arrived back at her house with the police, she saw police were already at her house. Our client was greatly surprised when these police officers arrested her without getting her side of the story. No investigation was done and the arrest was based solely on the allegation by her cousin.
During our representation of the client, we went back and forth in negotiations with the state to get the best outcome for the client. The State made an offer to the client to enter the diversion program. Our client grappled with the thought of accepting this program. She knew that was the safest bet and would ensure that she would get her case dismissed. However, in the end the client decided that she could not take responsibility for something she did not do. She did not want her cousin to win. She decided she wanted to go to trial. Before trial, we met with the client to prepare testimony. We spent hours preparing for the witness stand and gathering all the evidence possible to show the jury that the allegation by the cousin was a concocted fiction.
The case came down to the credibility of the witnesses. The State presented two witnesses, the police officer who arrested our client and the cousin (the alleged victim). During the closing argument we argued that the police officer had a fuzzy memory and failed to fully investigate the situation. We also argued that the cousin’s testimony should not be trusted. She had a motive to lie and her testimony was evasive. She did not answer questions directly and her explanation for what happened kept changing. Thankfully the jury was able to see that this whole allegation was a story made up bt the cousin to get our client out of the house so that the cousin could move in and continue to live the easy life. The jury came back with a not guilty verdict and our client got to leave the courtroom as a free woman.
Not Guilty!