Walk It Through: The Call About The Neighbors
Police at the door after a fight, the primary aggressor, and a bond hearing within twenty-four hours.
Officers arrive after a neighbor reports shouting. One partner has a visible bruise.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One call to one home. Protection orders, the degrees of the offense and their sentences, firearms after a conviction and the victim's rights in court are not worked through here.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- Domestic violenceCausing physical harm or injury to one's own household member, or offering or attempting to with apparent present ability under circumstances reasonably creating fear of imminent peril, graded in degrees.
- DwellingIn the self defense article, a building or conveyance of any kind with a roof, including an attached porch and a tent, designed to be occupied by people lodging there at night, temporary or permanent, mobile or immobile.
- Great bodily injuryBodily injury that creates a substantial risk of death, or causes serious, permanent disfigurement or protracted loss or impairment of the function of a bodily member or organ.
- Law enforcement officerFor the resisting arrest article, any duly appointed or commissioned officer of the state, a county or a municipality.
- PreceptThe document an arrest is made under. An officer may not neglect, on request, to show it to the person arrested or someone acting for them.
- Primary aggressorThe person an officer decides, weighing the factors the section lists, was the main physical aggressor when household members make conflicting complaints of domestic violence. The officer must not then arrest the other person.
- Search warrantA judicial officer's written order, issued on a sworn affidavit, identifying property and naming or describing the person or place to be searched, which must be executed and returned within ten days after it is dated.
- Appearance bondA bond in a set amount with sureties the court approves, one of the conditions a court may impose when it finds release on recognizance will not assure appearance or will create unreasonable danger.
- Own recognizanceRelease pending trial on the person's own promise, without surety, in an amount the court sets. A person charged with a noncapital offense is released this way unless the court finds a reason the section names not to.