This is the third trial win in a row. Three trials, three not-guilty verdicts.
Client was having issues related to needing to move out of a residence. His teenage daughter and his sister (her aunt) were there to help. It was an all-weekend move and they worked until late in the night. After an argument, client’s daughter went to leave with her aunt. However, client was worried that aunt had been using methamphetamine and wasn’t safe to drive. Went his daughter tried to get into aunt’s car, he stopped her by either putting his arm in front of her or by grabbing her sweatshirt.
Aunt and daughter reported client for domestic violence. The story changed to client lifting daughter off of the ground by her sweatshirt. Police observed and photographed red marks on daughter’s chest.
At trial, we argued that daughter and aunt were embellishing the story, that it was physically impossible for client to have lifted daughter in the manner alleged (she was probably 170 lbs and he was a slimmer guy that couldn’t have lifted her with outstretched arms), and that daughter’s red marks were caused by cold or something else, but not by client’s actions. We also argued that client had a right to use reasonable force to keep his daughter from getting into the car with an unsafe driver (that’s the sort of thing we WANT parents to do).
When daughter was on the stand during cross-examination, we asked her about the red marks and the cold. We asked if she typically gets redness when exposed to the elements or nervous. While we were cross-examining her, daughter’s chest and neck started turning red in the same manner that was documented in the police photos! Daughter stood up and showed this redness to the jury. Aunt did not testify credibly.
For the third trial in a row, the jury quickly returned a not-guilty verdict! Hopefully this family can work things out in a way that doesn’t involve the criminal courts.