God's Gift To Women

Charge: Assault of a Female

Caveat: I'm really torn about Assault on a Female charges. I understand and believe that there is a cycle of violence. I believe that victims of domestic violence usually return to her abuser and tend to rationalize/execuse/forgive the physical and verbal abuse laid upon them by her partner. Knowing about this cycle, I hate it when an alleged victim of an Assault on a Female approaches me and states, "I want to drop the charges." I'm torn because, generally, I believe that, indeed, an act of violence has occurred. At the same time, I do believe that once we attain adulthood, we all have the right to make decisions for ourselves, even if those decisions are bad ones. I also have a legal problem that, when my prosecting witness tells me, "It didn't happen that way," or, "The magistrate misunderstood me; that didnt' happen," then what am I to do, as a prosecutor, who takes her oath regarding serving justice and not prosecuting crimes for which probable cause does not exist, seriously? For now, I decide my cases on a case by case basis. I'm not afraid to dismiss a case, if the prosecuting witness does present as believable. I'm also not afraid to call the case and make the prosecuting witness state in open court that she does not wish to prosecute. Luckily for me, this next case, the prosecuting witness did want to prosecute.

The victim looked homely. When she looked at me, I couldn't decide which eye to look into, for one gazed off to my right and the other gazed to my left. She explained the situation, and I told her that we would have a trial and explained what would be involved.

When she testifies, the one thing that sticks out in my mind is when she stated, "I came to accept that part of our relationship." When I asked her to explain, she stated,"I just accepted that he would always have pornography. I guess it never bothered me too greatly because those women were unattainable. This was different, because it seemed to me that she was attainable. She was real, and it made me mad."

The incident started with the victim discovered several pictures of a naked woman on her fiance's cell phone. She had asked him to delete them, but the very next day, they were still there. That's when the prosecuting witness slapped the defendant across the face. From there, the two individual's stories differ. She stated that she slapped him once then left the room to get the child they have in common. She stated that he followed her into another room and began to beat her about the arms and neck. She then stated that she went to the local fire department and called the police.

He stated that she slapped him but not just one time. When he testified, he stated that he did, indeed, receive photos of a nude woman. He didn't know who this woman was, and his wife found them on his cell phone. He said that he did delete them, but he had a friend who was more technical savy than himself reload the pictures onto the cell phone so that he could prove to his wife that he did erase the pictures. [Yes, you read that sentence correctly. He actually stated that on direct examination.] Then it was my turn to cross examine the defendant. The following is a snippet of that cross-examination.

Me: So you had pictures of a naked woman on your cell phone.
Defendant: Yes.

Me: You didn't know who this woman was?
Defendant: No. I had no clue.

Me: Yet, this woman, who you have no idea who she is, sent you, of all the people in the worl, pictures of herself nude?
Defendant: Yes.

Me: Your fiance discovered these pictures of a naked woman, who you don't know, on your cell phone?
Defendant: Yes.

Me: She asked you to delete them?
Defendant: Yes, and I did delete them.

Me: But you wanted to prove to your fiance that you did delete them, so you had a friend reload them on your cell phone?
Defendant: Yeah.

Me: And your fiance found these photographs?
Defendant: Yeah, she took my cell phone when I was asleep and saw the photos. I tried to explain that I had the deleted and I want to show her that I did delete them, but she just got mad at me.

In my closing argument, I stated that the defendant's testimony should not be believed because, right off the bat, the defendant wanted to believe that some woman, whom the defendant does not know, sent him pictures of herself naked. [I should interject here that the defendant was not an attractive man, in any true sense of the word.] Of all the men in the world, this woman sent the defendant pictures of her naked body. Your Honor, that testimony is not credible.