Assault Causing Bodily Injury
My client, a kind 15-year-old boy, was investigated by school police for an incident on campus. My client was alleged to have engaged in a verbal altercation with another student, which escalated to my client allegedly striking and hitting the other child multiple times with closed fists. Police claimed that surveillance camera footage at the school corroborated the victim’s version of events.
My client was referred to the juvenile court for a misdemeanor assault charge. The District Attorney filed an Original Petition Alleging Delinquent Conduct against my client to seek a formal adjudication against the child.
I worked closely with the child, family, and the pretrial juvenile probation officer to improve my client’s chances of success in the system. By sharing a reasonable alternative explanation for the child’s behavior and working with the family to make sure the child was successful during the pretrial phase of the case, I was able to position the client for success.
Ultimately, I filed a motion for a “deferred prosecution unit” – a specific term-of-art, which is the juvenile equivalent of supervised pretrial diversion. After securing consent from the District Attorney, and making my argument to the court, the Judge granted my motion and the child’s case was ultimately dismissed.