Tips and Notes if you or a family member is arrested for assault
If you have been charged with Assault you should call Mario, Gunde, Peters, Rhoden & Kelley, LLC, as soon as possible. Our attorneys have over 100 years of combined experience defending people arrested for assault. We have former prosecutors, public defenders and attorneys certified to try the most serious felonies with many hundreds of trials. If arrested for assault in Brevard County you should not discuss your case with anyone until you have spoken to a criminal defense attorney.
Florida Statute 784.011 defines assault as having three parts:
- Defendant threatened to do violence to another person.
Under the first requirement there must be a threat such as, “I am going to hit you.” Proving a Defendant made any such threat can be difficult.
- The Defendant must have the apparent present ability to carry out the threat.
Under the second requirement it is not an assault if a person calls you from a distant location and makes a threat. It is not an assault if the person is in jail and you are not, or if the person threatens to run over you with a car, but they are not in or near a car. If a person is standing next to you and pulls back their fist while screaming threats, an assault may have been committed.
- The threat must create in the mind of the victim a well-founded fear that the threat is imminent.
The police will ask the victim of a threat if they were afraid. If the victim was not afraid then no crime has been committed. The intended victim may get mad or even be amused. In any event “no fear? no crime.”
Simple assault is a misdemeanor of the second degree punishable by up to 60 days in the county jail.
There are many types of assault that are more serious. Under F.S. 784.021 an aggravated assault is committed if a person uses a deadly weapon or makes the assault with an intent to commit a felony. Aggravated assault is a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in state prison.
There are also other types of assault, such as: assault on a law enforcement officer, assault on a person 65 years old or older, assault on code inspectors, and several other types of assault. Each of these type of assaults carry enhanced penalties.
Assault can be hard to prove because, unlike battery, there is usually no physical evidence. Each of the three parts of an assault charge, as listed above, can be hard to prove. The criminal defense attorneys at Mario, Gunde, Peters, Rhoden & Kelley, LLC know how to defend you if you are facing an assault, aggravated assault or any other criminal charge.
Call the Legal-Eagles.com attorneys today for a free consultation. Appointments are available daily. 321- 676-2150
