New York Criminal Lawyer Blog
There are few worse things than being accused of a crime you did not commit. Even more upsetting is if the crime you are arrested for in New York involves an accusation of Domestic Violence, Assault and Child Endangerment. Sadly, when marriages go south and divorces get nasty, criminal lawyers see the ugly side of false claims, unnecessary arrests and orders of protections that are used not because they are genuinely needed, but one spouse wants to manipulate the system for his or her own gain.
Unfortunately for a recent client of the New York criminal lawyer at Saland Law PC, the above scenario played out where her spouse accused her of Third Degree Assault, NY PL 120.00, in front of their children. Not only was she charged with PL 120.00, but because the children were allegedly present she was also arrested for Endangering the Welfare of a Child, NY PL 260.10. Compounding matters well beyond these two class “A” misdemeanors, the court issued an order of protection in favor of her husband and children despite the fact that although unknown to the District Attorney’s Office at the time, the complainant fabricated the incident.
While not every arrest, allegation, charge, indictment or trial has a happy ending, this particular case had such a result. During the pendency of the case in Manhattan Criminal Court, our client first secured an order of protection amendment in Family Court allowing the parties to have contact and for her to return to her home she shared with her family. While one could argue this was a recipe for disaster and further wrongful manipulation of the criminal justice system by her spouse, our client was able to live with and remain close to her children. Simply, there are few who would dispute a parents’ role and necessity to be close to their children.
Upon being home with a spouse possessing a penchant for misrepresentation, our we advised our client of her right to record her husband’s outbursts, lies, false indignation, and threats. In fact, we explained how New York State is a one party consent state. It was our criminal lawyers’ hope and goal that recordings could corroborate our client’s position as to the fictitious nature of the allegations and the husband’s ongoing threats to call the police and have our client arrested for violating the order of protection (that should never have been issued in the first place).
After numerous attempts to get a date that worked for our client, our criminal defense attorneys and the assigned prosecutor, Saland Law PC and our client agreed to a proffer with the District Attorney’s Office. During that meeting we presented evidence, as best we could, and provided insight into the nature of the relationship, the facts of what did and did not transpire, the ongoing custodial and divorce proceeding, past allegations of emotional abuse and an explanation of prior Domestic Incident Reports (DIR).
Ultimately, upon completing their review and examining what we provided to them, the District Attorney’s Office dismissed the case on the merits and dissolved the restraining order against our client on the first date in court after our client’s initial appearance at her arraignment.
Yes, every circumstance and allegation is unique, but the advocacy, advice and efforts of our criminal lawyers was as strong and zealous in this case as it is in all those that come before our attorneys.
To better understand New York Domestic Violence crimes, Third Degree Assault, Endangering the Welfare of a Child and Family Court orders of protection, follow the links embedded in this blog entry.
Saland Law PC is a New York criminal defense firm representing clients in Domestic Violence allegations and arrests throughout the New York City region. Our attorneys also represent client in Family Court as petitioners and respondents in matters involving orders of protection.