Jacqui Ford, Jacquelyn Ford Law, P.C.: Welcome to Your Best Defense podcast. My name is Jacqui Ford, and we will be talking about domestic violence in Oklahoma. So, if you are charged with domestic violence, or a friend or a loved one, is charged with domestic violence in the state of Oklahoma, here’s some information you must know. Domestic violence can be charged in a number of different ways. It can be charged as a misdemeanor, or a felony. And we’ll talk about the different reasons as it might be filed either way.
One of the first, and most important, things to know that domestic violence is different than simple assault and battery, based upon who the players are. So, you can’t have a domestic violence charge without the victim, or the abuser, being a spouse, or a former spouse, or boyfriend/girlfriend, a parent, some sort of foster parent, a child, some sort of blood relative, or relative by marriage, parent of a mutual child. There has to be some sort of relationship there. And it even extends to someone who’s currently living in a house, even if there’s no familial relationship. So, you might see that in a roommate situation. So, domestic abuse requires some sort of pre-existing relationship before the crime occurs, to give rise, to enhance it from a simple assault and battery. You know? A stranger bar fight or something. To give it this extra bump of domestic violence.
And why does that matter? It matters because when you’re charged with domestic violence the community and the legislature has decided that that act is much more offensive than the act of getting in a fight with a stranger in a street. That we somehow owe each other a greater duty because we have this familial relationship, or dating relationship. That we should engage in behavior that’s even greater than the amount of respect guaranteed to strangers.
So, if someone has been arrested, and you know that they’re being charge with domestic violence you should know that that means the government believes there’s some sort of relationship there. As a general rule, the first-time offense of domestic violence, if there’s no great bodily injury, and no strangulation, and no aggravating factors, most likely will be treated as a misdemeanor. If it’s just a run-of-the-mill domestic violence case, then it will be treated as a misdemeanor.
What does that mean? A misdemeanor means that you’re only looking at up to a year in the county jail. In Oklahoma, it also carries a $5000 fine. Your first-time offense could be charged in a municipal court, like the City of Oklahoma City, or Mustang, or Yukon, or Piedmont. Or, you could be charged in state court. And oftentimes, dv cases do get transferred over to state court because they carry with them extra obligations, as opposed to a simple assault and battery.
First off, it’s important to talk about bond. If you’re arrested for domestic violence, especially if you’re arrested close in time to the allegations, the fight is on at the house, someone calls the police, the police come out and they remove you, and they take you to jail. You can almost guarantee that you’re going to be held in jail without bond. That means, unlike a DUI, or a simple possession of marijuana, where you know your bond is going to be set at $1000 or $2000, you call a bondsman and you pop on out. In a domestic violence case the law permits the government to hold you for 72 hours. They call it ‘cooling-off period.’ Allows emotions to calm down, and whatever gave rise to allowing the situation to get out of control will have an opportunity to subside.
Many say it gives the victim an opportunity to pack their bags and get out. But either way, there’s a 72 hour hold.
Does that mean your stuck in jail for three days? No. It does mean you’re stuck in jail for three days if you don’t hire an experienced lawyer to defend you on these domestic violence cases. How do we get that 72-hour hold lifted? Well, we go to the district attorney, we come meet you, we find out the information about your case, and we go make an argument to the judge that this cooling-off period is not necessary. There’s a 1000 different ways we can do that, and we could be here all day talking about. But what’s important is if you’ve been arrested, or your loved-one has been arrested, and they’re being held with a 72-hour hold, contact us. We’ll get in there and see what we can do to get that bond lifted so that we can get the accused person out and back to work so that they can get back to life as usual.
What else do we need to know about domestic violence? A second charge of domestic violence most likely give rise to a felony charge in the state of Oklahoma. So, your first-time arrest they give you a nice little slap on the wrist. Your second-time offense you’re looking at felony charges that carry up to four years in The Oklahoma Department of Corrections. Again, up to a $5000 fine.
Each time we find ourselves charged with domestic the possible range of punishment could be greater. But the facts really matter more than anything. Domestic violence carries a number of differently qualifying statutes. What does it mean to have ‘great bodily injury?’ So, you may not have any prior domestic violence charges, but in this situation, the actions that gave rise caused an incredible injury to one of the parties. Maybe a nose got broken, or a finger got broke. We would call that great bodily injury. First-time offense carries up to 10 years in The State Department of Corrections. Heaven forbid, we’re charged with, accused of committing domestic violence against a pregnant woman, whether it’s your first-time offense, whether she suffers any injuries or not. If she’s pregnant, and you know it, the range of punishment is up to 10 years in The State Department of Corrections and a $10000 fine.
Sometimes we see people charged with domestic violence by strangulation, and all that means is that someone put their hands on, or around, your airways in an attempt to stop you from breathing naturally. That carries up to three years, a minimum of one year, which means one year in the Department of Corrections, and up to three years, and up to a $3000 fine. These are pretty serious allegations. Each one of the enhancers does not require a misdemeanor to give it rise to be a felony.
If, during any of these charges, you are found guilty, either by a judge or a jury, in the course of a trial or by plea, even if you receive a deferred sentence, (Which we’ve talked about before which is a special kind of probation, that’s not a conviction, but allows the court to make a finding of guilt, and put you on probation to meet your certain probationary needs, at the end of that sentence the case is dismissed.) Even in a domestic violence situation where you’re charged and sentenced, under a deferred sentence, you’re still required under Oklahoma statute to engage in a 52-week batterers’ intervention course.
What does that mean? Well, that is a domestic violence course. And you are required to participate for 52 weeks – that’s an entire year. Any finding of guilt, either by a jury or a judge, based on a plea or trial, will result in such a requirement. This is important because that is a stringent probationary requirement. There’s no other law in the state of Oklahoma that requires mandatory one-year’s worth of classes for any other action. So, it’s important to know if you’re going to enter a plea, if that’s your planned anticipated solution, that you might want start enrolling in those classes early. You start engaging in those classes, you learn the skills and tools necessary to be able to better deal with better conflict within the home environment. And that helps us assist you in negotiating a better deal on your behalf.
52-weeks batterers’ intervention course is not an option. It is mandatory. So, it’s important to know that any plea, of any kind, no matter what your lawyer says, will require 52 weeks. And that’s every week. You know? Maybe you miss a week here or there, you can make it up. But they’re pretty serious about you starting it and completing it with the same groups of folks you started it with.
One the things people always ask about domestic violence is, “Is this a violent offense?” Well, by its very name it must be deemed violent because it’s violent, domestic violence. However, it’s not violent for the purposes of whether, or not, you’re a violent offender in the state of Oklahoma. Do you have to register as a violent offender on the Violent Offender Registry? The answer is no.
It is a violent offense for other reasons. People who are looking at an application for you to rent from their rental property. Maybe you’re trying to rent a house, or a duplex, or even an apartment. Domestic violence charges can, and oftentimes do, prohibit you from having access to that rental property. People will just say, “No. We’re not doing it.” If you are currently renting, and you are charged with domestic violence, and the police have been called out to your apartment complex because of a domestic violence issue, in many leases you will find a term that says they can terminate you, and everyone who’s in that house, if you return after a domestic violence case.
These are things people don’t know about. So, it’s important when you think about how to move forward, and where you’re going to positon yourself on probation, what are some of the consequences? And it’s very prohibitive in a number of differ ways. Employers look at domestic violence with a special eye, oftentimes, too. People judge it one way, or the other. And it’s very much, kind of the same as DUI. Right? If you’ve got 10 friends of average, ordinary character probably two or three of them have experienced a DUI in their life. Many people look at DUIs as this horrible, awful, violent crime that puts at risk the lives of everybody in the world. Many people look at DUIs as very simply, the safest crime in the world to commit. And everybody does it, and sometimes we get caught.
Same kind of thing on domestics. People either look at it with a grain of salt, which is, this happens. Relationships are wired-up. Men get out of control. Women get a little crazy. And they either kind of dismiss it, or they look at it with a very, very judgmental eye. And it’s very likely that you could risk being fired from your job based up a plea or conviction for domestic violence.
The power of accusation in these cases is so great. I think we’ve talked about the power of accusation before in sex crimes cases. But in domestic violence cases it’s just ‘off the hook.’ Why? Because to find ourselves in this situation where the temperatures are so high, that law enforcement has to be called, someone’s going to be pretty upset. If it’s you, or your spouse, that’s called the police then they’ve made a decision for themselves that they need help out of this situation. The power of that accusation’s pretty great.
The federal government gives grant money to district attorney’s offices especially to prosecute domestic violence cases. By the district attorney’s office acceptance of this grant money their hands are tied in how they can negotiate some of these cases. It used to be that you could call the alleged victim in the case and say, “Do you really want to prosecute this matter?” And she might say, you know, “No. Johnny and I we’re just – we had too much to drink that night. And it just got really frustrating. I wanted him to leave, and I didn’t know how to make him leave. So, I called the police, and asked him to leave.” And they don’t necessarily always go as far as to say they lied, because who wants to admit to lying to the police and opening themselves up for a new charge themselves. But, maybe they exaggerated the truth, and they ask the government, “Hey, can we not press charges in this case?”
I hear it from clients and their alleged victims all the time. “I don’t want to press charges. Do I have to go to court?” The fact of the matter is, if law enforcement is involved it’s not up to you to make that decision anymore. That is a TV novelty. Wherein we get to say, “I don’t want to press charges.” The crime is not her against him. You against him. The crime is the state of Oklahoma against the offender. The alleged victim, although she’s given an awful lot of power (And I say ‘she’, and I understand that it can oftentimes be the other way around. But let’s just be realistic, and oftentimes it’s the woman who’s accusing the man.) that she has an incredible amount of power. To admit that she lied is an awful lot to ask for her to do. And even if she does that, she receives a lot of pressure from the district attorney’s office because they have agreed not to dismiss these cases for failure to have a cooperative witness.
They put an incredible amount of pressure on the alleged victim. They threaten them with arrest. They threaten them with perjury charges, or making false police reports. This is against the law. If you are an alleged victim of domestic violence, and the government is doing this to you, either through the district attorney’s office, or through an arm of law enforcement – specifically police officers or district attorney’s investigators. Then I suggest you contact a domestic violence lawyer who can help advise you of you rights. There are protections specifically in the law for you to prevent them from doing this. And we all know that they do it every day because I hear every single day from alleged victims. That the government is the one becoming the abusive, overpowering person in their life, and trying to force them to do something against their will.
I take these kinds of allegations against the government very seriously, and I would strongly encourage you to contact my office, or another experienced domestic violence lawyer. Because they cannot threaten you in that way. It’s actually a crime for them to do so. However, it is common practice, and it’s an awful lot to ask for a person to admit that they were wrong, or lying, or exaggerating.
So, it’s difficult to get the case dismissed. Oftentimes, you have to litigate it. If you’re charged with a misdemeanor you have to set the thing for trial and see if she shows up. Deal with the evidence as they have it, and ask a jury to see it your way.
If you’re charged with a felony you have a little bit more options. Certainly, it’s not a good thing to be charged with a felony, but at least in a felony you have a right to a preliminary hearing. That’s the first time that they’re going to call her in, and get her story on the record. Whatever she reported to law enforcement is not evidence. And that’s important to remember. It’s important for the person who notified law enforcement to remember that it’s not evidence, either. And you’re not stuck to the story that you told. Especially, if that story isn’t truthful. You have a right, a duty, and an obligation to clear up the record. Not only for yourself, but also for the person who’s been accused.
So, domestic violence claims come with really a dark cloud. And it can really be debilitating. Oftentimes, we see domestic violence claims accompanied in other cases. Let say you and your spouse are getting a divorce. Oftentimes, we see what we call the ‘divorce trifecta.’ I filed a petition for divorce. I filed a domestic violence case. And I filed a VPO. Boy, that person’s showing you. It is a very common scenario that lawyers, especially divorce lawyers who don’t practice in criminal court and don’t understand the grave consequences of making such false allegations, oftentimes encourage their clients to use the court system’s resources, whatever they might be, to best advantage them for a battle over silverware and custody of their children.
So, if your charged with a domestic violence case, and you’re also going through a divorce, talk to your divorce lawyer about their experience in this matter. Most divorce lawyers that I know, know that they don’t want to mess with this. And they’ll send you to an experienced lawyer in Oklahoma City to represent you.
That’s the short, sweet bit we have about domestic violence. It could be a misdemeanor, it could a felony. It could be a year, it could carry up to 10. Any finding of guilt, any conviction of any kind, is ultimately going to result in 52-weeks of batterers’ intervention courses, along with a slew and series of other probationary requirements. In order to limit that, limit your amount of time that you’re on probation, and limit the amount of hoops that you have to jump through, it’s important that you find someone experienced in defending domestic violence cases. We hope that you give us a shot. Thanks.
