Chapter 19 - The charging decisions
The prosecutor separated the conduct.
Celina faced the most serious assault charge because she intentionally swung a heavy object and caused a significant fracture.
Her defense disputed intent to cause serious physical harm.
That mattered.
A negotiated resolution eventually reflected an intentional assault resulting in serious injury without pretending she intended to permanently disable me.
She accepted a felony-level assault offense.
The sentence included a period of incarceration measured in months, followed by supervision.
No decades.
No theatrical maximum.
Anger-management treatment.
No direct contact with me.
Restitution for uninsured medical costs attributable to her conduct.
Luke’s case was more complicated.
He had not swung the rolling pin.
Prosecutors considered complicity but evidence that he planned the physical strike was weak.
They instead focused on conduct they could prove separately:
Domestic-violence-related restraint and intimidation.
Interference with my attempt to leave.
The false-document investigation.
His effort to create a misleading account after injury.
He ultimately resolved a combination of domestic-violence and financial-document offenses, with incarceration substantially shorter than Celina’s plus probation and restrictions.
The exact fraud count reflected attempted financial deception because the additional credit was never fully funded.
Barron was not charged with assault.
His failure was morally serious.
Legally different.
He became a witness.
People online hated that.
“He watched!”
Yes.
May you like
Watching can be evil.
Not every evil fits a criminal statute.
