Lending Aid to a Friend

Being arrested and being charged with domestic violence is a serious action, and you will need to act quickly to clear your name and prevent punishment if you are innocent. As you may have already encountered, the alleged victim in this situation receives both all of the sympathy and the benefit of the doubt. Law enforcement personnel are burdened with arresting the perpetrator on the thinnest of suspicions, and having a domestic violence charge on your criminal record will haunt you the rest of your days. When you consider that the alleged victim can use these charges to exact revenge for their displeasure with you for any reason, you can imagine the importance of working to clear your name. Whether it's an angry child or a vindictive spouse, read on to learn more about getting the justice you deserve.

What constitutes a domestic dispute?

You don't necessarily need to be related to the alleged victim to be accused of this charge; it can come from anyone that you have shared a home with or had a relationship with in the past or in the present. For example, roommates, former spouses, current spouses, children, adopted children, sexual partners, and more all qualify as domestic relations and form the potential for a volatile situation if a disagreement presents itself.

The contact required to fit the charge of domestic abuse or violence can be anything that even remotely resembles a physical or sexual assault or battery, or the threat of one. In some states, if a minor child is witness to the alleged assault, enhanced charges may apply.

When the charges are false.

Undoubtedly, domestic violence is real and threatens innocent adults and children on a daily basis. When confronted with allegations of abuse, law enforcement personnel take the "better safe than sorry" approach and make judgments quickly based on what information they find at the scene. This can mean, unfortunately, cases of innocent people being arrested and charged with crimes that they did not commit.

In some cases, the alleged victim is all too well aware of this tendency on law enforcement's part to act quickly without a lot of proof, and uses that to an advantage. In other cases, the allegations come from exaggerated or even wholly made-up facts that suit their need to cause harm to the accused.

Regardless of the reasoning behind the false allegations, it's in your best interest to act quickly and contact a defense attorney, such as those at Alexander & Associates, P.C., as soon as possible. False allegations can be proven, and having legal professional on your side is never more important than now.