Criminal Defense Lawyer in Virginia Beach

Domestic Assault and Battery

In order to be convicted of Domestic Assault and Battery the Commonwealth must prove that there was a touching.

Generally, there has to be some evidence that the accused actually touched the other person. What would constitute a touching? Well, any intentional physical contact that is made from one person to another would be considered touching. If person A intentionally pushed person B, then that would be touching. If person A intentionally took his index finger to ever so slightly poke person B in the chest, then that would be touching. If person A intentionally  took his thumb and middle finger to lightly flick the back of person B’s ear that would be touching. Moreover, if person A uses inanimate objects to touch person B then that too would be touching. For example, if person A takes a pen and uses it to tap person B on the chest, that would be touching. The reason for this is that in a scenario like that the law would treat that pen to be an extension of person A’s person. Similarly, if person A assaults an inanimate object that is being held by person B then that too would be considered an assault. For example, lets say person B is holding a drink in their hand and person A knocks the drink out of their hand without ever touching person B’s person. In that scenario the law would treat person B’s drink to be an extension of their person and therefore person A would be guilty of assaulting person B. Moreover, if person A throws an inanimate object at person B that too would be considered an assault because that object would be considered an extension of person A’s person. For example, if person A throws a paper airplane at person B that would be considered an assault. Please note that even intangible objects such as water would constitute an assault. In other words, if person A throws water from a cup (but not the actual cup) at person B that too would be considered an assault despite the fact that the water is not a solid substance and will quickly evaporate. So what wouldn’t constitute touching? Well, words and words alone (no matter how heinous) are never enough to constitute a criminal assault and battery. In other words, if person A gets really close to person B’s face and is yelling at them and cursing them and saying that they want to fight them, that alone is not enough for person A to be found guilty of criminal assault and battery. Moreover, words and words alone are not sufficient provocation to justify assault and battery. For example, in the same scenario above, if person B gets fed up with person A’s fighting words and finally pushes person A away from their face then person B would ironically be guilty of assault and battery. Note, that there is one narrow exception to the touching requirement, and that is that someone can be guilty of assault if they merely attempt to commit a battery; in other words, if person A attempts to punch person B in the face, and it’s a swing and a miss, that would still be considered an assault because it was an attempted battery where person A made an overt act of force but just so happened to miss, in that scenario person A would be guilty of assault. Moreover, in that scenario person B would be justified to use some degree of reasonable non deadly force on person A. In other words, if person A swung and missed on person B then person B would be within their right to push person A and would likely also be justified in punching person A in the face one time in defense of person A’s attempted battery.