Assault charges in Colorado that are filed by local police and sent to city court or what is sometimes known as Denver General Sessions are called “municipal assault”.
Even though municipal assault charges do not carry the same more serious penalties as state assault charges in Colorado, they are still considered misdemeanor assault charges and can go on your permanent record as misdemeanors in Colorado and ruin your life, career and family.
It is important to note that most municipal assault charges are accompanied by battery charges that give the city prosecutor an upper hand at negotiations and at trial because two charges mean double the chance that a jury may find you guilty.
Across Colorado, almost all municipalities carry the same sentences for misdemeanor assault charges. Assault charges in Golden, Arvada, Wheat Ridge, or Denver, and most other cities in Colorado can carry penalties of up to one year in county jail and/or up to a $1,000 fine or both.
Sometimes the prosecutor will offer you a plea bargain where you are expected to plead guilty to assault and they will dismiss the battery charge. Sounds good right? Until you get in front of that employer who has run your criminal background check in Colorado and tells you that someone else is getting your job.
Although assault and battery are usually charged on the same ticket or “summons”, the two are distinctly different charges and carry different “elements of the crime”. What that means is that you may go to trial and be found not guilty of one, and guilty of the other. This is why you should look for Denver criminal lawyers who have the years of courtroom and trial experience that will help you understand what your charges mean and how to defend against them.
For example, in Aurora, assault is: an attempt coupled with a present ability to commit a battery. Battery is: the knowing or reckless use of force or violence upon the person of another. In other words, assault means that you tried to hit or hurt someone, and battery means that you succeeded in hitting or hurting someone.
Too often a prosecutor will argue to a jury that while you may not have succeeded in committing a battery (hurting someone), that you definitely did commit an assault ( attempting to hurt someone). Most criminal defense attorneys in Boulder, Brighton or Westminster can’t even understand the difference between assault and battery in Colorado for themselves, so then, what is a jury supposed to do? Well, what they usually do is choose one of the two and find you guilty of one and not guilty of the other.
Now you are looking at up to a year in county jail, or up to a $1,000 fine, or probation (sometimes with jail). You may now have a permanent violent record that will go with you to any state in the country that you choose to live in. Does that sound like a resolution you want for your case? Of course, the answer is no. You want to see the jury say not guilty on both charges. That is why it is so important that you contact Shazam Kianpour & Associates, P.C., today at 303-825-1075.
The most common types of municipal assault charges are domestic violence assault. Domestic violence in Colorado usually means that the crime that you are charged with committing was committed against your domestic partner.
A domestic partner is a person that you are or have been intimate with in the past. This means that if you and your ex-husband get in a shoving match when he stops by to pick up the kids and he calls the police, the police may show up and charge you with domestic violence assault in Denver, Aurora, Lakewood, or whatever city you reside in.
Now you have to not only face the stigma and embarrassment of everyone thinking you are a violent person, but they also think you are a domestic abuser. Worse, if you are a man, everyone assumes you are a “wife beater”.
How do you feel your chances of getting a job, or an apartment, or a car or home loan will be if you have a domestic violence conviction on your record?
We have over 20 years of combined courtroom and litigation experience in Denver, Commerce City, Centennial, Englewood, and cities all over the state.
We have fought domestic assault and battery cases and both reached resolutions that saved our clients’ careers before trial, and also gotten not guilty verdicts if the case had to go to trial.
We have been in the trenches fighting the battles for our clients and have hundreds and even thousands of successful outcomes to prove it.
Sometimes we take the fight to the prosecution before it even gets to trial and we succeed in getting you a preferred outcome before it even gets to trial.
Sometimes we convince the prosecutor to offer you a deferred judgment, which means that if you stay out of trouble for a while, your case will be dismissed and the charges will be dropped.
Whether you are facing assault charges or battery charges, or both, call the legal team of lawyers that has handled them and knows how to make sense of these types of cases both to you, and the judge, jury and prosecutor. Email us today using the form on this site, or call Shazam right now at 303-825-1075. Your defense begins here.
