PT4M27S
“the first and easiest one is general denial so if someone is saying hey this thing happened and the other person is saying no it didn't what you would typically think of as a he said she said situation our approach is general denial now it really supports our case if we have additional information or additional evidence to support our general denial and we'll go into kind of what types of evidence are useful in domestic violence cases in a moment but general denial is the most common”
“there's also situations where the named victim may be making up a story so there have been cases that i've worked on specifically where someone gets injured in some way that is not related to any kind of domestic argument whatsoever but then later on someone calls the cops and said oh i got this injury from them i've seen situations where someone was involved in a skiing accident and then later on that day they got into an argument with their significant other and then reported that their injuries that they had from previously in the day were caused by their partner which was blatantly untrue”
“one of the more common defenses that we see though is the defense of self-defense and self-defense is an especially strong defense in domestic violence cases because it's what we call an affirmative defense an affirmative defense means the district attorney has to prove elements against a defendant so they have to prove every single element beyond a reasonable doubt in order to get a conviction at a jury trial within a an affirmative defense it raises the bar or raises the standard for the district attorney so not only does the district attorney have to prove every single element of the offense but they also have to disprove the act of self-defense”
“often we see a male and female relationship where the male will have a bite mark on his arm and he'll say that the female was the initial aggressor and should be charged with domestic violence i cannot tell you how many of my female clients are charged in this way but what i can do is show that defensive wound the bite mark often what that does is proves self-defense because in a domestic violence situation if you for example if the man was actually trying to hurt the the woman by wrapping his arm around her throat one of the best defensive moves that woman can do is to bite down on the arm to get him to release now obviously in that situation she is not the initial aggressor she's defending herself”
“the injury is difficult because law enforcement may not see injuries on her but sees that bite mark but in that case we can use the affirmative self-defense claim now if this were to go to trial in this hypothetical example then the district attorney would have to prove not only that the woman caused the injury to the man but that she also did it and it was not an act of self-defense so self-defense is a very very solid defense strategy if we have the facts available to us to use that approach”
“other things that are really helpful when we're forming defense strategies for domestic violence cases is additional evidence so video recordings audio recordings text messages all of those things are very very helpful to us as a defense firm because we can use those to not only have a he said she said situation but to have actual facts showing that our claim of self-defense or general denial is correct”
“what i recommend is any time that you're in a situation where you're feeling uncomfortable or nervous and you think that there may be a potential for a domestic violence situation always record because you want to make sure that you are preserving the evidence that could eventually protect you if needed now obviously we don't want people in these situations but if you ever find yourself in a situation like that take videos take pictures make notes right after make sure that you're doing everything you can to protect yourself and ultimately call an experienced domestic violence attorney to help guide you through this process if you do unfortunately get charged with an act of domestic violence”
“self-defense is an especially strong defense in domestic violence cases because it's what we call an affirmative defense an affirmative defense means the district attorney has to prove elements against a defendant so they have to prove every single element beyond a reasonable doubt in order to get a conviction at a jury trial within a an affirmative defense it raises the bar or raises the standard for the district attorney so not only does the district attorney have to prove every single element of the offense but they also have to disprove the act of self-defense”
“what i recommend is any time that you're in a situation where you're feeling uncomfortable or nervous and you think that there may be a potential for a domestic violence situation always record because you want to make sure that you are preserving the evidence that could eventually protect you if needed”
“i cannot tell you how many of my female clients are charged in this way but what i can do is show that defensive wound the bite mark often what that does is proves self-defense”
“self-defense is a very very solid defense strategy if we have the facts available to us to use that approach”