Injury to Child, Elderly or Disabled Person

The statutes regarding injury to child, elderly individual or disabled individual are complex and they do fall under the assault and sometimes the assault family violence statutes. The reason they are so complex because the legislature ties the level of felony to the mens rea. Mens rea is the mind set you have when you commit the crime and if you act intentionally your punishment range will be much higher than if you only acted with criminal negligence. The legislature also breaks it down by the type of injury so the variations on the charges are greater in this part of the Texas Penal Code Chapter 22 Assaultive offense are much greater. If you are facing a charge like this it falls under the category of assault in Collin County, Tx and Plano criminal lawyer Casey Davis has the experience to walk you through your charge and help you understand what steps need to be taken in your case.

These types of cases can be relatively simple where an adult child gets into a fight with their parent, and this draws a third-degree felony charge for injury to elderly. Here the injury would be bodily injury or “pain” as described in the assault statute. The parent would have to be over 65. So really this is just an assault case moved up to the felony range because the alleged victim was 65 or older. This statute can go on to address more serious offenses where for example someone works in an elderly care center and assaults an elderly person living in the center. Cases within this statute that happen between family member even though technically family violence because the alleged victim qualifies as a “family or household member” will probably be assigned to the general prosecution unit at the district attorney’s office. Romantic partners will be sent to the family or domestic violence unit. So theoretically two married or dating 65-year-olds who fight could end up with a charge of injury to elderly that gets assigned to the family violence unit.

Many times, injury to elderly will occur when two family members live together and the one under 65 gets arrested for assaulting the one over 65. So, for example, a stepchild and stepparent, a nephew and aunt, a grandchild and grandmother, a child and parent. It is very common for these types of cases to be indicted by the grand jury as the felony and then later offered to be reduced to a misdemeanor assault charge, no family violence finding, by the trial team prosecutor. That is a great offer, if you are guilty of the assault to begin with. But what if you are not? A defense attorney needs to really analyze the case, did an assault occur or was this a mutual fight? And if an assault did occur, does the victim want to assist you in being considered for a conditional dismissal. Or did no assault occur, and the alleged victim is being vindicative or because you were the one assaulted. There is just a lot of analyzing that needs to be done on every case. This is what attorney Casey Davis in Plano, Tx, does every time she is hired on a Collin County assault or assault family violence case does.

Intentionally or knowingly, by act or intentionally, knowingly by omission, causes to a child, elderly individual or disabled individual serious bodily injury or serious mental deficiency, impairment, or injury.

If you work at a center or facility and you intentionally, knowingly by act or intentionally, knowingly or by omission cause a disabled individual residing in a center or facility bodily injury.

If you recklessly by act or recklessly by omission, causes to a child, elderly individual or disabled individual serious bodily injury or serious mental deficiency, impairment, or injury.

You will face a third-degree felony if you intentionally, knowingly, recklessly or with criminal negligence, by act or intentionally, knowingly or recklessly by omission, causes to a child, elderly individual or disabled individual serious bodily injury or serious mental deficiency, impairment, or injury.

You will face state jail felony if you work at a center or facility and you recklessly by act or recklessly by omission cause a disabled individual residing in a center or facility bodily injury.

You will face a state jail felony if you with criminal negligence by act or with criminal negligence by omission, causes to a child, elderly individual or disabled individual serious bodily injury or serious mental deficiency, impairment, or injury.

As you read through the different levels of charges for the assaultive offense of Injury to Child, Elderly, or Disabled persons you can see that the legislature in Texas takes assaults upon these special classes of people very seriously and put a lot of thought into what level of punishment one should face for committing such acts. You must hire an experienced Collin County criminal lawyer that puts as much analysis into whether you should plead guilty as the legislature did when writing these statutes. Collin County criminal lawyer Casey Davis in Plano, Tx, works closely with Collin County assault and assault family violence cases and knows how to handle the cases that fall under this statute.