Aggravated Assault Lawyers - Philadelphia criminal lawyer Zak T. Goldstein, Esquire, describes the most common types of Assault Charges and some of the potential defenses for such charges available in Pennsylvania law. If you are under investigation or facing criminal charges in PA or NJ, please contact us
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Aggravated Assault Lawyers
Hi, my name is Zak Goldstein, I am a criminal attorney in Philadelphia with the law firm Goldstein Mehta LLC. We handle many cases of aggravated assault. And the topic I'm going to talk about today, is more severe attacks. Now in general terms, Aggravated Assault is always a felonious crime in Pennsylvania in state courts, and there are three types of aggravated assault that criminal charges can be found in Philadelphia and in counties throughout Pennsylvania. The first type is the most serious. This is a first-degree felony, and when aggravated assault is charged as a first-degree felony, it usually involves serious bodily injury, which means that the person charged willfully, intentionally, or unintentionally causes or attempts to cause serious harm to another person. people. Usually, it will involve someone, someone who is really hurt, or it will involve a gun.
Aggravated Assault Lawyer
So if you shoot someone, if you stab someone, multiple times, you know, you hit someone 100 times and break a bone, it's usually going to be aggravated assault as a first-degree felony. Now, the second type is an attack involving law enforcement or some other protected class. They can be corrections officers, police officers, judges, public defenders, district attorneys, Septa officers or health workers or doctors, members of the protected class for second-degree felonies, aggravated assault. In this case, it should not be a serious bodily injury. If you try to harm yourself or intentionally or intentionally, and you can't be reckless, it means you can't have an accident, you can't be reckless. You have to really be what you have to do, or what you want to do. If you cause bodily harm or attempt to cause bodily harm to someone governed by the law, such as a police officer, it is always a second-degree felony. This is true even if the person only has minor bruising or redness or swelling, not necessarily serious bodily injury.
And the third type of aggravated assault is also a second degree felony. It is a body wound by a deadly weapon. I mean, let's say you stab someone in the arm and it's okay. Get well, one or two stitches, you know, not a big permanent wound, then maybe just a bodily injury with a deadly weapon because the knife used to stab is a lethal weapon, but not serious or serious. business injury, not something that will affect life permanently. There is no risk that he will die. This is aggravated assault as a degree-appropriate felony. Now, for every such accusation, there is a defense.
You are sued in state court in Pennsylvania. You have the absolute right to a trial by judge or jury. In some cases, you will also have a preliminary hearing. So with some aggravated assault charges, there is a defense even at the preliminary trial level with sufficient evidence, especially with aggravated assault being a first degree felony. Often the winning aircraft were charged with heavier strikes. The complainant will say, oh, I was hit, you know, five, 10 times. I was hit several times in the head and the prosecution will try to pass it off as aggravated assault as a first offense. So in terms of the adequacy of the defense, there should be a defense. Well, serious bodily injury was not caused. This man was not seriously injured and only punched or threw a few kicks as part of the fight, well, this was not an attempt to cause serious bodily harm, so the charge should be dismissed and should be simple assault even at the preliminary hearing. where there is a lower standard than in the trial.
As to the sufficiency of other laws, there may be a challenge to what the defendant wants. With law enforcement, more severe attacks - Not only can they resist arrest, they can't try to avoid arrest. Even if a policeman ends up getting hurt, it must be the accused's intention and must be deliberate or known. It doesn't just happen because of reckless behavior. So it can be a defense against compounded assault as a second-degree crime, and then there is also a reasonable defense against bodily injury with the type of weapon that causes compounded assault, which can challenge whether it is actually killing or not. weapon. You see a lot of crimes compounded two attacks where the prosecutor and the police, they never really know if this type of weapon is involved.
Media Assault Lawyers
Maybe a screwdriver, maybe the defendant used a ring that caused a big cut. A deadly weapon has a very specific definition, meaning a firearm, whether loaded or unloaded. It is something that is a knife-like weapon. If not, when it is some kind of random object, if it is a pen, screwdriver, plate, something the defendant just took, then it must be used in a calculated way or likely to result in serious, er, to cause death or serious. body injury So if an object is picked up during a fight, it doesn't automatically become a lethal weapon. There must be something that can kill like a knife or a gun, or it must be the method used. Adequacy is often a potential defense in these types of cases, but there are other types of defenses as well, with criminal cases.
Aggravated Assault can be a charge to take, in case the defense can be misidentified. It depends on the credibility of the witness. Does the witness really represent the right person? There may be a defense of credibility - that is a witness telling what they saw or the facts about the injury. Are they really the ones accused of trying to do this? Then there are other defenses that are really specific. It will be a quick trial defense. The accused were brought to justice quickly. This would be a motion to suppress evidence that the defendant was stopped by the police or illegally interrogated without Miranda rights or questioned as part of the illegal stop. These are all potential defenses for aggravated assault charges and potential defenses in the case, because there is always a right to a jury, there is a right to a trial by a judge if you choose to go that route.
Then there are constitutional defenses such as the right to a speedy trial, the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure, and the right to Miranda counsel. Now, we have handled countless assault cases, countless murder cases, both tried by judge and jury. We have won complete acquittals in aggravated assault and murder cases. And if you face assault charges or criminal charges, we can help. Criminal defense attorneys offer free 15-minute criminal defense strategy sessions to potential clients. So call us at 267-225-2545 to discuss your case today.
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