Virginia Beach Assault Charges
Assault charges can be defined as an individual afraid of being harmed because someone else is threatening them. Somebody believes something bad could happen to them based on how another person is acting. The legal phrasing is “objective standard” and “subjective standard.” This means that the person feels threatened by another person’s actions. In Virginia Beach, there is a difference between assault and battery. Assault is the threat of being harmed. It doesn’t necessarily require any sort of actual physical contact whereas battery is where there is actual harmful contact. An assault and battery, which is a more common charge, is unwanted touching and hostile contact. These charges can come from fights or any form of unwanted touching.
Since Virginia Beach assault charges are serious, and can potentially lead to jail time, it is crucial to seek the counsel of a dedicated assault attorney if you are facing assault charges. A legal team can help you build a defense strategy.
Common Assault Charges
Often, assault charges result from fights or people in arguments which escalate, someone is in the home or in public places. Assault can be charged with assault with or without physical content if an individual threatens another person to commit bodily harm.
Virginia doesn’t have something specific to call an aggravated assault. Virginia has assault and battery and malicious wounding.
Malicious wounding is when someone commits a serious injury and he or she has the intent to either maim, disable, or kill, and that’s an assault and battery but when someone actually causes a serious injury and they either break a bone or break the skin or something like that.
Severity of Assault
When one person injures another, law enforcement tends to pay attention to that and, often, the victims are aggressively seeking legal redress. Law enforcement takes assault very seriously.
The investigations are done at the scene and they tend to not take very long. When all parties are there and they are able to interview all of the relevant parties at that time, law enforcement can generally make an arrest that evening.
In Virginia Beach, a prosecutor has to prove that there was harmful contact. For Virginia Beach assault charges, there has to be a threat made to cause someone bodily harm. If there are is an assault and battery charge, they have to prove that there was an offensive, an unwanted physical contact.
The worry when someone gets an assault charge is if there is a victim who may be sympathetic and his or her worry is what the judge will do and what the person who harmed them might do later. Since these are personal crimes, an individual has to face his or her accuser and that can be difficult.
Penalties
Assault and assault and battery are misdemeanors and they carry the possibility of 12 months in jail and they will go on someone’s criminal record. In Virginia, he or she is not able to expunge anything where he or she is convicted so it would be there for life.
Whenever an individual is convicted of a misdemeanor, that’s often something that he or she has to disclose on applications. If he or she is applying for a job or applying for the military, they will be asked if they have been convicted of any misdemeanors. A person would have to answer that they have been convicted of assault and battery.
Virginia Beach assault charges against another person can be serious so an individual may be looked at as somebody with a violent past. If a person is ever convicted of other charges, especially crimes against another person or crimes of violence, that assault, and battery conviction can be brought up to show that the individual has a violent tendency.
Contacting a Lawyer
With an assault charge, testimony will be taken from the person claiming to be the victim and an experienced attorney will have to practice cross-examining and should know what kind of questions to ask especially if the argument is self-defense. An individual wants a lawyer who can lay the groundwork for him or her. If you are facing Virginia Beach assault charges, consult a knowledgeable attorney who can help you build a strong defense case.
