Photo Of Kyle B. Sawyer
Photo Of Kyle B. Sawyer

Charged With A Crime? It Doesn’t Mean You’re Guilty.

Aurora Assault vs. Aurora Battery | What Does a Defense Attorney Think is the Difference?

On Behalf of | Mar 16, 2017 | Assault |

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Assault and Battery in Aurora Criminal Defense Lawyer
It is hard to understand why the City of Aurora even has the crime of Assault, 94-36. Here is the definition of Assault: “An assault is an attempt coupled with a present ability to commit a battery, as defined in section 94-37, upon the person of another, and it shall be unlawful for any person to commit an assault in the city.” What really does this mean? If you try and fail to commit battery? Then why not do what most other jurisdictions do and charge the conduct as “attempted battery”? It just doesn’t make any sense and is very confusing to people charged with Assault in Aurora.

Battery in Aurora – This Crime is a Mess Too for Aurora Criminal Defense Attorneys

Battery’s definition is: “the knowing or reckless use of force or violence upon the person of another. Every battery shall be deemed to include a violation of assault, as defined section 94-36. It shall be unlawful to commit a battery in the city. It shall be an affirmative defense to the charge of battery that the use of force or violence was privileged. The only complaint I have here is that committing one crime should not include committing another crime. Are we going to convict people of two crimes if they commit one? Only an archaic system would do that.

Self Defense in Aurora – A Criminal Attorney’s Definition

The Battery ordinance above states: It shall be an affirmative defense to the charge of battery that the use of force or violence was privileged. Privileged means “justified”. This implicates self defense. Here is the definition of Aurora’s self defense law:

Use of physical force in defense of person, Sec. 94-2:

(a) Except as otherwise provided by law, a person is justified in using physical force upon another person in order to defend that person’s self or a third person from what the person charged reasonably believed to be the use or imminent use of unlawful physical force by the other person, and the person charged used a degree of force which was reasonable and appropriate.

(b) The defense described in subsection (a) of this section shall not include force used in retaliation.

(c) Retaliations means:

(1) The use or threatened use of physical force after the other party has withdrawn from the encounter and effectively communicated to the person who is retaliating that intent to withdraw, by words or actions;

(2) The use of a degree of force which a reasonable person would not believe necessary for the purpose of defense against another person under the same or similar circumstance; or

(3) The use of force which is not intended for self-defense, but to return an injury or wrong to another person who has used physical force.

So, without a retaliation motive, you can use self defense if someone or yourself is in danger of imminent harm. This can apply in many cases, particularly those where our client have not given a statement or answered question for Aurora Police Officers. They are trained to try and defeat anticipated defenses like self defense.

Never speak with police when charged with Battery or Assault in Aurora. You can’t talk police out of filing charges and they are trained to get you to say things which hurt your defense. Call our Aurora Battery and Assault criminal defense lawyers today at 303-731-0719. Together, we can protect your future.

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