Assault Family Violence/Domestic Violence

If you are facing any type of assault family violence charge or domestic violence charge you need to hire Casey Davis, a Collin County Criminal Defense lawyer and Plano Criminal lawyer, who has proven case results in assault family violence cases. Casey can show you samples of her work in this area and provide references for others charged with assault family violence or domestic violence that she successfully managed with a dismissal, decline to prosecute, no bill or reduction of charges. The most crucial factor in Casey being able to help people charged with assault family violence, aggravated assault deadly weapon family violence or assault impeding airway family violence is getting started early! Call Casey Davis today to schedule a free consultation.

The State of Texas has a variety of assault family violence laws. Two terms are applied to assault cases involving family members, assault family violence and domestic violence. The assault laws range from Class C misdemeanor assault family violence at the lowest level all the way up to first degree felony enhanced assault family violence at the highest level. The punishment range for assault family violence or domestic violence cases can range from a five hundred dollar fine up to a 10,000 dollar fine, 2-10 years deferred adjudication or probation, 2- 10 years in prison, 2-20 years in prison or 5-99 years in prison. These assault family violence or domestic violence cases can also be dismissed, refused, declined, no billed or receive a not guilty verdict from a judge or jury. See Casey’s recent results on assault family violence cases.

 A class C assault family violence/domestic violence charge involves one family member threatening another family member or touching the family member in an offensive manner. A family member is usually a girlfriend, boyfriend, sister brother, mother, father, daughter, son, husband, wife, roommate, or any other family relationship. When family violence is added onto to your ticket this is a severe problem for you and can have long term ramifications, but a good Collin County or Plano criminal defense attorney can help guide you on how to navigate this type of ticket. Criminal defense attorney and ex prosecutor Casey Davis manages these cases in Plano, Frisco, Allen, McKinney, and Richardson.

The next level up is class A assault family violence. This type of assault family violence or domestic violence charge is much more serious. This means you are charged with causing a family member to feel pain or suffer bodily injury. This is even worse than a class C ticket for assault family violence. A class A assault family violence or domestic violence charge has such serious ramifications that you can later end up facing a felony charge or having a criminal record for life. This class A assault family violence charge can make it appear as if you are an abuser to a family member when if fact you may have done nothing criminally wrong and be completely innocent! A class A assault without the family violence “finding” is not as bad, but still bad, no one wants to have a record for any kind of assault making you appear on paper to be a violent person. You will be unable to volunteer at your kids’ school, miss job opportunities, have trouble renting, look bad in business, the list of negatives goes on and on.

The thing about assault family violence is that so often no crime was committed, but a fight broke out between family members, and someone called the police to come out and calm everyone down or ask someone to leave. When the police are called the person who called them has no idea that someone will be arrested. Most police agencies in this area have a policy that someone will be arrested. They do not want to run the risk of leaving without making an arrest and finding out later that someone was hurt, and it is all over the news that they were just there hours or day or months before and made no arrest. So, it is easier to just arrest someone and “CYA” for the police department than deal with bad press. This is wrong, if police can ascertain that no one committed an offense, and it was just a mutual fight between family members than no one should be arrested!

Now, for the felony assaults! These can ruin your life if not overseen properly. Collin County criminal lawyer and Plano criminal lawyer Casey Davis will step in and begin mitigating damage to your life right away. The lowest felony charge is assault impeding airway, which is when you are accused of intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly impeding the normal breathing or circulation of the blood of a family member by applying pressure to a family members throat or neck by blocking a family member’s nose or mouth. The punishment range for this offense is 2-10 years in prison, or 2-10 years probation or deferred adjudication. This charge can ruin your record for your entire life and leave you vulnerable to enhanced second- or first-degree charges later in life. 

Moving up from here is aggravated assault deadly weapon which is second degree. This charge is a second degree even it is alleged to have been committed against a family member, but it will be listed on your charges as aggravated assault deadly weapon family violence. Police officers and detectives get this wrong many times and charge people with a first degree if they are charged with aggravated assault deadly weapon against a family member. Assault becomes aggravated assault second degree if a person committed class A assault as described above and causes serious bodily injury or uses or exhibits a deadly weapon during the assault. In order for an aggravated assault deadly weapon family violence to be escalated to a first-degree felony, the person must cause serious bodily injury to a family member. Serious bodily is rare because it is an extremely specific type of injury that must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt and the injury is much more serious than pain or bodily injury. Most of these aggravated assault deadly weapon family violence cases are when one family member is angry at another and to emphasize their anger, they hold a knife at the side or a gun. But holding it at your side to emphasize your anger is not enough. Aggravated assault deadly weapon has to include threatening a person with imminent bodily injury or causing them pain or bodily injury while holding the weapon. Just having the weapon in your hand is not enough. These types of family violence charges come along often and need an analysis conducted by a lawyer who does a thorough job of fighting against these charges. You can face up to 2-20 years for this type of assault family violence charge or be placed on probation or deferred adjudication for 2-10 years and never get this off your record.

The Texas Penal Code has other sections that address assault family violence or domestic violence called continuous assault family violence or enhanced assault family violence. A person can allege that a family member has assaulted them numerous times, with no more evidence than their word, and cause a person to be arrested for assault family violence continuance. Or this can lead to an enhanced charged taking a misdemeanor up to felony or a third-degree felony up to a second-degree felony or a second-degree felony up to a first-degree felony. First degree felonies carry a minimum of 5 years in prison so this is a very egregious family violence or domestic assault charge that may be unfounded.

Call Casey Davis, Collin County criminal lawyer and Plano criminal lawyer, right away if you are facing assault family violence or domestic assault charges. Casey excels in her work on assault family violence, aggravated assault deadly weapon family violence, and assault impeding airway family violence cases. These are three areas where Casey feels she can affect the most change for her clients. She works ridiculously hard to get to bottom of what happened and tell her client’s family story in written form as a pitch to prosecutor or grand jury about what she feels is the just outcome for the case. Family violence cases require diligence, attention to detail, and holding of the client’s hand. Most of Casey’s clients facing assault family violence charges are traumatized and that is understandable. They need a lawyer who explains things to them and takes the time to collaborate with them towards the right outcome. Some of Casey’s clients are people who were done wrong in a relationship or who were pushed to point of fear or anger, and they acted out in a way that Is not within their normal character. These things need to be emphasized to the prosecutor or grand jury. Casey does not give up when she believes her client is wrongfully charged with an assault family violence or domestic violence type of case. She fights for them and when one course of action does not work, she goes back to her file, rethinks her strategy, and tries again. She keeps trying until she “wins” for her client. She is not shy about telling anyone who will listen in law enforcement that her client has been wrongfully charged and that she needs their help fixing this problem for her assault family violence client.