Criminal Defense Q&A: I Punched a Guy Who Puked at a Party and Got in My Face – Will I Be Charged with a Crime?

Question:

I am a 20-year-old student, and I’m in need of some advice. I was at a small gathering of friends when a bunch of random guys showed up. Long story short, these guys got extremely intoxicated and one of them vomited on my friend’s couch and carpet. I was explaining that I have never known someone to just sit there and throw up without going to the bathroom or outside, or tell someone. I was sitting on the couch and one of this guy’s friends was arguing with me trying to justify his friend vomiting. I told him his opinion was irrelevant because I didn’t know him, and he told me to get up and say it to his face. I got up and told him and his friends they needed to Uber home. The guy pushed me hard and raised his fist, and my first line of defense was to punch him twice in the face and grab him so that I had him under control. Once other people had him under control, I let go and left to another room where I was out of the situation. The guy called the cops, and they said his nose was a little swollen and he had a bump. I got a citation for battery. Witnesses were questioned, but now he’s pressing charges. What do I do?

Answer:

An alleged victim may want you to be prosecuted and may even give a statement to police supporting that position, but only the District Attorney’s Office has the power to formally charge you with a crime.

Just because you were issued a citation by police does not necessarily mean that the prosecutor will file charges against you. In deciding whether to file charges, a prosecutor must examine all of the evidence (for instance, from police reports, witness statements, and photographs) and determine whether it is strong enough to prove to a jury (that is, 12 random people) that you are guilty.

In the situation that you’ve described, much will depend on what the other people at the party saw. Will they corroborate your account of the incident as one where self-defense was necessary? Or did people see you as the aggressor? Did they witness the entire incident? Or just the punching? And were all of the people who witnessed the incident actually interviewed by police?

If you are able to do so, it would be prudent to retain a criminal defense attorney now. The attorney and his or her investigator can help you identify and interview outstanding witnesses and re-interview witnesses who already spoke to police. The sooner that these witnesses are interviewed and/or re-interviewed, the better their memory of the incident will be, and the more credible their statements will be.

That information can eventually be presented to the District Attorney’s Office. Any information that corroborates or contradicts the statements obtained by police can impact a prosecutor’s decision to file charges or, if charges have been filed, how to proceed with the prosecution. (Note: Some attorneys refer to this specific service as “pre-filing services.”)

If you cannot retain a criminal defense attorney now, then your next step is to appear at your court date to see whether or not the prosecution has filed charges against you. If so, you can choose to have the Public Defender’s Office represent you at that time or ask for more time to retain a private attorney. If charges have not been filed, then you must periodically check in with the District Attorney’s Office until the statute of limitations expires. For misdemeanors, prosecutors have up to one year to decide whether they wish to file charges. Penal Code 802(a).

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