Our client faced charges of Assault in the Fourth Degree and Harassment, with a potential combined jail sentence of nearly one year for the Assault charge alone, plus an additional six months on the Harassment charge — nearly a year and a half of total exposure.

The case arose from an unusual and deeply human set of circumstances. Our client had taken an overdose of drugs but then reconsidered and sought help. In a desperate attempt to get himself to the hospital, he woke his mother by pulling her from her bed. His mother sustained an arm injury in the process, which became the basis for the criminal charges against him.

Our attorney, Ryan Lhotsky, recognized that the facts told a very different story than the one the prosecution was presenting. At trial, Mr. Lhotsky successfully argued that our client harbored no intent to harass his mother — his sole focus was getting emergency medical help. Mr. Lhotsky further demonstrated that the injury to his mother was not a foreseeable consequence of his actions under the circumstances, meaning the conduct did not meet the legal standard for recklessness required by the Assault charge.

The court agreed on both counts, returning Not Guilty verdicts on all charges.

This case illustrates that context matters enormously in criminal defense. The same set of facts can look very different when a skilled attorney presents the full picture to a jury. If you are facing charges where the circumstances are more complicated than they first appear, we are here to make sure the jury hears the whole story.