What you need to know about Domestic Violence
With domestic violence being a hot topic in the news, I thought I would write a short article informing readers and potential clients about my experience defending Phoenix Domestic Violence cases.
Domestic violence is a very broad criminal charge. There is the stereotypical types of domestic violence where a man or a women who are married or living together, cause physical harm to another. This is what we’re seeing mostly on TV with NFL players.
The important takeaway from this article is, you don’t have to hit your spouse or significant other to be charged with domestic violence. I have represented countless clients who received domestic violence charges over fact patterns you wouldn’t think are even violent.
Domestic Violence Doesn’t Have to be Physical
Let me give you three examples of a typical domestic violence situations. First, I represented a young man who after arguing with his girlfriend punched a hole in their apartment wall. When the girlfriend reported this behavior to the police, boyfriend was arrested for domestic violence.
Second, I represented a man who after an argument with his wife, he threw a shoe at the garage door. Again, the wife called the police. When the police arrived, they observed a dent in the door and arrested husband for domestic violence.
Finally, I recently represented a man who got into an argument with his 16 year old son in their driveway. Our client used some colorful language, never touched his son, but was still arrested for domestic violence.
The bottom line is this, if the police are called for suspicion of domestic violence, they are not necessarily looking for a typical physical altercation. They are essentially looking any type of behavior that could be considered threatening or intimidating.
Whether or not you agree with domestic violence or whether you believe the government should interfere with domestic arguments when there hasn’t been any physical contact is an entirely different discussion. The purpose of this post was to make you aware that police are very hard on anything that even remotely appears to be domestically violence. When responding to domestic violence calls, most law enforcement agencies have a policy to arrest someone.
Author Bio
Matthew L. Lopez
Matthew L. Lopez is the Managing Attorney and founder of Matthew Lopez Law, a criminal defense and DUI firm serving clients throughout Arizona. His track record of case dismissals and charge reductions has earned him honors, including a National Trial Lawyers Top 40 Under 40 nomination, a “Superb” 10/10 Avvo rating, and a Rising Star designation by Super Lawyers.
Matthew is a member of the National College for DUI Defense and holds active memberships with the Arizona Association for Criminal Justice and the Arizona Association for Justice. His firm handles criminal defense, DUI, drug charges, and traffic offenses, offering free consultations and affordable payment plans to make quality defense accessible to all Arizonans.
