Criminal Defense Lawyer in Virginia Beach

Domestic Assault and Battery

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

In other words, if the accused touched the other person by accident then the charge against them should be dismissed. For example, let’s say that person A is telling a story to person B and as person A is telling the story they are using hand gestures for dramatic effect, and then unfortunately one of these hand gestures accidentally strikes person B in the face and person B takes charges out against person A. Here, person A should be found not guilty because they lacked the criminal intent necessary for this kind of conviction. Another example could be if person A and person B are fighting over some kind of inanimate object. For example, let’s say person A and person B are fighting over a TV remote. If a tussle ensues between the two of them over that remote and they are both yanking it back and forth that alone would not be enough for an assault and battery even if there was some touching that occurred as a result of that. The defense would be that any touching that occurred was merely incidental to the tussling over the remote and the intent lied solely with trying to obtain the remote and not with touching the other person in the process.