Penal Code 273.5 PC - Corporal Injury to Spouse or Cohabitant: 9 Most Common Mistakes People Make

if you were recently arrested for domestic violence there are nine common mistakes that I have seen people make after getting arrested so in this video I'm going to be explaining to you what those mistakes are so that you can avoid them my name is Veronica I am a criminal defense attorney here in Los Angeles and I help people who have been arrested put their criminal cases behind them so that they can enjoy their lives and their freedom but sometimes people make mistakes before they call me or even sort of under the radar without telling me after they call me and I want to share those that's what I'll be doing today nine mistakes that people commonly make in these cases the first mistake is thinking that because the victim does not want to press charges you don't need to fight the case you don't need to take it seriously it can get dropped this is a really common misconception and you know over the past 10 years that I've been doing this I've actually seen that people are starting to realize this that once the cops come out and they make an arrest for the most part it is going to be out of the victim's hands and with the victim definitely can't do is decide that they're going to drop the case it's not the victim's case it's the government's case at that point so just because the victim does not want to press charges does not mean that the case is going to be dropped number two is let's say that you are still together with the victim it's your husband wife whatever um and maybe you didn't actually commit any domestic violence but there was obviously something that happened right there was at least a really bad fight and then when you get arrested it's pretty traumatic especially if it never happened to you before you're in the back of a police car you're in a horrible jail that smells awful maybe it takes a while for you to actually get bonded out you're really scared you're in there with you know actual criminals and it's a really bad time and then you're like oh my God now I'm facing you know felony or misdemeanor charges whatever they are am I going to go to jail is my life going to be over of course you as the person who is arrested are going to feel very concerned for yourself but what I have seen over the course of my time doing this is that when you act toward your partner really self-interested the focus of all of this is not like I'm really sorry that we had that horrible fight honey and by the the way maybe I was wrong about whatever we were fighting about instead of including that the arrested person will only focus on oh my God now I'm facing these charges this is really horrible that is a recipe for disaster and look I am not a therapist I'm not a relationship coach I'm just a lawyer but I have seen this happen again and again and when I have given I see men doing this sometimes I'm sure that there are women too I actually don't know if I've seen that necessarily but I've seen men do this sometimes in front of me and I will take them aside my clients and tell them look this is my advice I mean you can take or leave it of course you know I'm a lawyer I'm not you're a marriage counselor but I don't think that that's going well you know I'll see the look on their face and when they switch it around you know and act caring toward the person you know you're missing work sometimes to be at court for this or to talk to me for this but if they're there so are they or thank you so much for coming honey and supporting me all of that goes a long way and when I see people doing the opposite sometimes they also then end up making mistake number three which is while the case is pending get divorced or break up that's a terrible idea I've had cases where at the very beginning the alleged victim is completely on my client's side and maybe my client actually did nothing wrong you know the cops come out they arrest the man and here we are but through the course of the case if they end up breaking up if they're getting into fights if they end up getting divorced they're moving out sometimes I'll see the victim come back and threaten them and say you know I'm going to take you down for this and especially if we have like a City attorney hearing coming up or usually we get the charges dropped that's really bad so if at all possible keep things calm definitely don't dump the alleged victim definitely don't get divorced if they want to dump you or if they want to divorce you I would say it's on a case-by-case basis you know be cooperative don't refuse to move out or something but I would just be say be conciliatory as much as you can and if you can possibly avoid you know things are good at the beginning keep them after the arrest keep them good just try to keep things right there until the case is over it will definitely help you even though the case is not in the victim's hands if we have the victim calling up the prosecutor saying he's an abuser this is horrible I'm trying to get out I want to a 10-year protective order that's not good for your case um number four is let's say that you maybe you're not together anymore maybe this fight um or whatever happened was actually you breaking up so you're not together maybe you never lived together maybe you never really were together maybe this is more of a hook up kind of situation whatever um I don't have any negative contact with that person if there's not a restraining order in place and the two of you are texting don't get into a fight don't call her you know the b word don't don't do any of that that's not going to be good for your case and I know that this may sound very simple and very stupid but the thing is that I mean maybe in your normal life without the case hanging over your head you would have done these things and people get emotional people are afraid and more stressed out when these cases are hanging over their head and it does happen so just keep this in mind if you find yourself in a situation where you are in an argument with the alleged victim just walk away stop texting say you know what I'm gonna call you back later whatever it is but don't have negative contact that can be used against you and if you're sending texts calling her bad names or whatever even if she's doing it to you too and those make their way into the prosecutor's hands the chances of charges being filed more serious charges or worse punishment the case not getting dismissed when it might have otherwise I mean that increases greatly for you number five is somewhat the opposite of number four and number three don't send any apology texts definitely not an apology is an admission of guilt I don't know if you've heard this advice before I know I heard it when I was really young which is if you get into a car accident with someone never say I'm sorry right and I'm not a civil attorney I'm not a car accident attorney but you don't want to say I'm sorry even if you're sorry that the accident happened and you're not saying I'm sorry it was my fault because it sounds like an admission of guilt so do not do any of that for the most part I mean if you're not in contact with the alleged victim after the arrest like you bond out someone else bonds you out and you don't live with that person I wouldn't contact them at all if they want to come to you and contact contact you that's okay and if you are going to respond ideally you have an attorney who can talk to you about what to say and what not to say um but I would not be contacting them number six is failing to submit a do not file packet okay so I have a few videos about this because I think that it's so important but basically when you are arrested and you have a case you have a court date maybe in like a month or two sometimes even three or four months from now that means that the police have generated a police report and given it to the district attorney's office district attorney has to look at the case and decide to file more serious charges less serious or go with what the police go with what the police charge you with in the first place or just dismiss the case and not file anything at all now obviously dismissing the case is your goal but if you do nothing it is possible that on your on their own without any kind of intervention from you without hearing your side of the story good things about you any of that it's possible that they will decide not to file or make it less serious but don't you want to maximize your chances that they will dismiss the case so you can be done with the whole thing possibly never even have to go to court the way to do that is to have an attorney and this is not a DIY project do not send your own statements to the district attorney absolutely not but hire an attorney to file a do not file packet talk to the DA and in that include your side of the story in some cases depending on what that is a statement from the victim if they're on your side um letters of recommendation good things about you if you are working going to school have a family you know basically are a good productive member of society the D.A will not know that when they're making this decision unless you put that information in front of them so when somebody books a consultation with me one of the first things that they have to tell us is have you already had court and many times they have already had court and it's a case that I think hey I probably could have gotten this dropped before but now you already had court which means that the case was already filed and it's too late we can't go back we can try to get it dismissed now but it is much harder to get a case dismissed once it's already been filed then to get them to drop it before and never even start the case to begin with number seven is failing to go to either domestic violence classes therapy if there was like a lot of drinking involved and that's probably in the police report a a whatever you should be taking some kind of class or doing something between the time that you are arrested and your first court date if you've already had court you should probably start going now so domestic violence classes those can be a little bit hard if you don't have an attorney to get into which sounds weird but for the court approved ones sometimes they want like a letter stating why you're going um and basically you have to explain to them hey I'm going pray like preemptively I'm going um before court because I want to make sure that I have some of these classes done sometimes they get confused so if you have an attorney they just send them a letter and it becomes very clear why you're doing this and we make sure that you get credit for it but the other option is even go to therapy if you're still together go to marriage counseling or if you're not married you know couples therapy do something so that you're a lawyer when you go if it's a public defender if it's a private attorney can use that to show hey this person sees that there's a problem not that you necessarily did anything wrong but obviously something bad happened that you got arrested even if it was just a loud argument and this arrest scare the crap out of my client and so he's taking all this action to make sure that he never ends up in the same place again that goes a really long way and if you wait for your court date to do that maybe you're thinking well she said you know my my case might not be filed why should I have to go to four months of therapy or domestic violence classes I'm really busy okay it's absolutely for first of all that can be submitted with a do not file packet second it's absolutely worth it if you can potentially get the case dismissed or not end up with you know a felony record potential prison time or even a misdemeanor record and potential jail time to go to these classes it's absolutely worth it um and third is if you wait for court the case is filed and you start going then the judge is going to want to move the case along once the case gets filed so you may not have that much time before the judge says all right take your offer whatever that may be or I'm going to set the case for trial or preliminary hearing in a felony case you may not have that much time to get that money under your belt and the more that you have the better it looks for you in terms of trying to get the case reduced trying to get classes in exchange for a dismissal something like that so you want to start as soon as you can number eight is putting your life on hold now these things can obviously take quite some time to wrap up first of all if your court date isn't for a few months well it's probably not going to get resolved until at least close to your court date if you submitted a do not file packet and have an attorney but if the case is actually filed now you're looking at depending on the case maybe six months maybe a year that this case is hanging over your head so I've had people tell me well I'm waiting to apply for a job until my case is resolved or I'm waiting on whatever I'm don't do any of that just move your life along proceed as normal don't let this case just completely take over your life and number nine is my personal pet peeve especially when it comes to tick tock do not post about it on social media again this is one that sounds really silly but people do this all of the time especially in restraining order cases you know my client will be like oh and let me show you all the tick tocks that I made on this and all the tick tocks that she made I'm like what do you mean why would you be posting tick tocks about a case and then I'm looking through the other parties seeing what can I use against this person don't put things out there for your opponent to potentially use against you no matter how funny it is no matter how nice it is to vent or have people like it or whatever it is not in your interest to do so even if you're saying I'm absolutely innocent this is don't think like there's some sort of loophole and way around this where it's advisable to post on social media about your case it is not I hope that you found this video helpful if you do have a domestic violence case or another criminal matter in California feel free to pick a consultation with me down below you can also give me a call you can find my number there