Assault and Domestic Abuse

Assault Crime Attorney in Oldham County, Ky.

Highly skilled trial attorney who during his 17 years handled cases with assault charges like Assault in the First Degree Cases, Domestic Assault Case, EPO/DVO Hearings, Emergency Protective Order, Domestic Violence Orders, Domestic Assault Charge, Domestic Violence Case, Intimidating a Witness Crime, Menacing Charge, Assault Third Degree, Aggravated Assault Case, Terroristic Threatening, Harassment, Assault with a Deadly Weapon Case and Emergency Protective Order from Family Court, among others.    

Oldham County Criminal Defense Attorney

Call the Best Assault Attorney in Oldham County if accused of assaulting or hitting someone in Oldham County, or anywhere in Kentucky.   There are four degrees, or levels of assault.  Assault in the First Degree through Fourth Degree depending on the injuries, whether weapons were used or the status of the person hit.  Assault Third is only on Peace Officers, Oldham County Police Department, KSP, Sheriffs, etc.  

Oldham County's demographic, much like Louisville's and the makeup of the town make it a great audience for trying a guy on guy fight.  I coined the term in my early 20's, well before I went to law school.  We called it the "Phoenix Hill Exception" or the "Toy Tiger Exception" saying they could apply after watching a fight or disruption.   This implied that a fist fight, fight using a weapon or otherwise would be excused if it were on or around the Phoenix Hill or Toy Tiger.  Newer exceptions have since come about since those bars are no longer in existence.  The Cahoots Exception, The Spanish Cove Exception, Club 21 (Preston & Hill) Exception, and in undergraduate The Tavern (4th Street) would have been an exception, but then they made it nice and it burned down.  Looking at the "Exceptions List," 4 of the bars listed were/are on Bardstown Road. 

Juries in Oldham County, like bouncers, do not seem to care about guys fighting each other, random or otherwise, if you are out bar hopping and drinking.  Let's step back Oldham County, LaGrange, Kentucky and ask ourselves, can you think of any other city, anywhere, where the bars are open until 4:00 a.m. and people don't start going out until 11:00?  At least that is the way it was when I went out and I am 50 years old, about the mean age of the Oldham County Juror.  The first jury trial I had was knife versus 2x2 club.  Knife wins and knife gets indicted for Assault in the First Degree.  Knife is acquitted at trial as quickly as they could pick a foreperson.  The winner of a fight is 99% chance of being charged.  I am guessing at the percentage, but it would be high.  

No one should hit a woman.  I have involved myself physically in domestic arguments among strangers and it will not happen around me.  However, I have had clients tell me that they never hit a the woman they were seeing and they explain it.  This is where you have to get to know your clients well.  You also have to debunk the myth that if the officers arrest you then you did something wrong.  And in domestics, the officers are not leaving unless one of you is coming along.  More likely than not,  the guy.   Sometimes what you did wrong was start seeing the wrong person and the wrong person like to throw up a bunch of shade and drama.  

Why domestics are winnable, often.
Well, a fair portion of my clients will describe the female counterpart as, bipolar, 0-60 to breaking stuff in 3 seconds, and unpredictable.  This female we will call Psycho.   
The officers arrested my client, your brother, your son, your daughter, whomever.  Now, when figuring whether the girlfriend/wife or boyfriend/husband did something, you need more than your client to figure it out.  Never ask the parents of your client about them until your investigation is over, because they are going to hate whomever they are dating or are married to, anyway.    

The Psycho, the female who everyone is related to one, has a mirror image.  
The SLICK guy, see definition of PSYCHO above but with a twist.  Slick guy will punch a girl, tell stories about how great he is and is probably an only child.  But, unlike the PSYCHO who throws the violence onto you, SLICK goes with the flow, throws up all the shade and drama, and when police are called and arrive, his recitation of the facts make sense and the lady goes downtown to the book.  SLICK and PSYCHO are easy to defend a case against not only in Emergency Protective Order Hearings, but in criminal trials to acquittal. 

Everyone else, between PSYCHO and SLICK are in a grey area and have to be analyzed on a case by case basis.    

Assault Lawyer in Oldham County, Ky. 

There is no difference regarding assault versus domestic assault as the elements of the crime are the same.  It is an 
internal classification that tailors and stores the difference.  

Assault in the Third degree is hyphenated because it would never be domestic. Pay attention to that statute because it is a felony assault because of the person's position. YOU ONLY HAVE TO ATTEMPT TO CAUSE HARM.  

Self Defense Attorney in Oldham County, Ky. 

Self Defense can hold the person assaulting someone completely as never having committed a crime, or the crime of assault.  It can also be held that self defense was justified, but that excessive force was used.  This is termed imperfect self defense.  The key to use of a knife, gun or other weapon in self defense is the subjective belief of the person asserting self defense.  Was this level of force necessary when they had been attacked?

Your criminal attorney needs to know evidence law and how it affects what is admissible in a self defense case.  Necessary force and this subjectivity.  What do you mean?
Like other areas of law, the subjective belief of someone is what they believed at the time self defense was used and was it justified.   So, it is not what the reasonable person believes at the time, but instead what the assaulter believed at the time of the event.  So, it is often important to know if the person asserting self defense knew the person stabbed. What did he know about him?  It helps in regards to use of force if he knew the person assaulted and knows that he had a violent history, liked to fight, had seriously harmed people he had fought before and he had heard he actually killed someone in his past.  

It doesn't matter if the reputation of the person assaulted was right or wrong, it only hinges upon whether the person assaulting someone thought it was.  If these were what we knew about this person it would seem as though self defense was lining itself up as a privilege that negates all culpability.  It would be shaping up as perfect self defense.  

Now, the jury would have to go back in the jury room and discuss everything about the case.  They would be instructed that they should look at the case as though they were the defendant himself and with all the knowledge about the victim that he knew.    They are instructed that although it is subjective, it has to be reasonable.  He can't be afraid of martians and ... 

Self Defense in Kentucky is strong.  It becomes a negative element of the crime of Assault.  The prosecution has to believe each element of the crime and also the negative of self defense, beyond a reasonable doubt. So, in plain language the prosecution has to convince the jury that all the elements of the assault occurred and that the Defendant was not entitled to self defense.  Not entitled to it "beyond a reasonable doubt."  It becomes the prosecution's burden.  It is great.

I love to try the assault cases.  Like I said, if even a remotely fair fight and the jury finds complete self defense. 

Here is a clip from an Assault First Degree Trial.  Although my client is very intelligent, which alway helps, he also knew and was entitled to fight for himself.  


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