Oklahoma City Assault and Battery Defense Lawyer Your Best Defense Podcast

Jacqui Ford, Jacquelyn Ford Law, P.C.: Welcome to Your Best Defense podcast. My name is Jacqui Ford. Today we’re going to be talking about assault and battery, and defending assault and battery cases in the state of Oklahoma. Assault and battery comes in a huge variety of shapes and sizes. The number of statutes dealing with assault and battery are very many. We’ll not be able to talk about all of them today, but we’re going to hit the big ones to be able to give you the information you need in case you, or a friend, or family member, is charged with assault and battery.

First of all, there’s the simple misdemeanor assault and battery. You think about the bar-fight guy. You know? And you’ve had a little bit too much to drink, and we get mouthy, and we put hands on one another. But there’s no major injuries, no broken bones, no weapons are used, it’s just fist-on-fist, ‘boys being boys’, or you know ‘girls being girls.’

Simple misdemeanor assault and battery is a very, very common charge. And as long as there’s not some sort of familial relationship that gives rise to a domestic violence case, then we’re dealing with generally just a misdemeanor simple assault and battery. Simple assault and battery is a misdemeanor, and it generally carries no time to up to 90 days in the county jail. Generally, up to a $1000 fine, the jury could assess prison, or jail time, or the fine, or both. So, it carries up to about 90 days. That’s for simple misdemeanor assault and battery.

Oftentimes, people get confused about the difference between assault and battery, or simple assault. The example that I generally give is if I’m pulling my fist back and say, “Oh, I’m going to hit ya!” That’s an assault. You’re threatening an act of violence. The battery doesn’t occur until actual contact is made. So, we could be charged in simple assault by threatening someone with harm. But to get to the rise of assault and battery actual contact must be made from the perpetrator to the victim, or some extension of their body.

Many times we see assault and battery charged as a felony. And people don’t understand how it goes from misdemeanor to felony. So, a misdemeanor means no major injuries, there’s no scarring, maiming, you know, and no weapons were used. But the minute you pick up a weapon, no matter how benign that weapon may be, you given rise to being charged with what we call assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. A dangerous weapon could be anything. It could be the stapler on your desk. It could be your shoe. It could be anything that you take in your possession to use as force against another person. Oftentimes, that item is being used in a manner it which it was not described to be used. So, if we pick up a trash can and throw it at somebody that’s assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. We just went from what should have been a very simple misdemeanor charge, to a felony charge. And it carries up to 10 years in The Department of Corrections. Many folks are surprised to know that.

If we use another kind of weapon, a weapon that is otherwise deemed deadly, and using it oftentimes has deadly results. Let’s think of a knife, a gun, nunchucks, a sword, something to that effect that is going to be used to cause serious, serious damage. Or, a car. Oftentimes, we see assault and batter with a deadly weapon with the use of a car. That is an 85% crime. This is a big deal. It’s a huge difference between assault and battery weapon with a dangerous which is deemed a violent crime, and assault and battery with a deadly when we’re attempting to use deadly force on another person. With no priors, that carries 0 to 20 years. And it’s 85% meaning if you’re sentenced to 10 years you must server 8.5 years before even being eligible for parole.

The real scary part about these felony charges is: if when you’re charged with these crimes you have prior felony conviction in your history, especiall