Me and my husband were in MA on the weekend. We are from another state. In the hotel room we got in argument, where we said many hurtful things. As a result I called 911 but the call was hang up before anything was said. I was going to tell to the police that everything was ok and I just misdialed, but my husband left the room saying he needed to cool off. He went downstairs to grab a coffee. That made me very angry and my hysteric went out of control. I started crying. When police came I told them made-up things, and then immediately took my words back, saying that I was angry at him and he didn't touch me. Police officer was very rude and didn't wont to listen to me. He looked at my neck and saw "some redness on neck" and thought it was because he touched me, as he later put it in police report. My face was all red because I cried, but he didn't want to listen about it. And that was enough for police to arrest him on charges of A&B with dangerous weapon and A&B.
I bailed him out next morning and repeatedly said that I was not going to testify against him and that it all was a big misunderstanding. The same day we hired a lawyer. We both love each other and we never had any problems. And we both are determined to keep out marriage and don't have any grudge at each other.
The problem is that he is not a US citizen, he is on student visa. I am a US citizen and I'm also a student. As far as we learned I cannot do anything for this nightmare to go away, no matter how much I want this. And if he gets any sentence, probation, family violence finding or anything, all his work as a student here in US will be wasted and most likely he'll be deported and as we found out we may have problems having kids. The lawyer said he can take care of it, but he doesn't explain a lot of what's going to happen and how is he going to build the defense. And I'm going to invoke my spousal privilege not to testify against him. The problem is that my first words to the police officer can be used as excited utterance exception, and we are afraid that this "redness" on the neck will also be used against him.
We would like to have some second opinions on what would be the best strategy and is this even possible to keep our marriage now. We are students and don't have much money to travel across the country to numerous hearings and courts. And we are very frightened about our future. We both did stupid things, but we want to put it behind us and proceed with our lives.
Submitted by paul on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 22:14
Assault and battery
Sorry about your situation, but it is difficult to offer a more helpful opinion than your attorney's, given he is familiar with the facts and the issues and we are not. As you know, with assault and battery and other crimes against the person, the State can choose to prosecute even when the victim refuses to testify. The issue here, to me, is whether you have faith in your attorney. If he is not doing a good job explaining the case and the issues to you, or if he is not adequately preparing for the defense of your husband, then perhaps you should get a second opinion from a new attorney. If, on the other hand, you are merely anxious and wishing you knew how this case will eventually turn out, then try to take a step back, see if you can get the information you need from your current attorney, and let him do his job.