What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Idaho
Hi. I'm hoping I can describe a situation a friend of mine is in, and get any words of advice. Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this.
I don't know every last particular in this situation. I've seen the citation before, and I can assure you this is really happening, though I can't remember the terminology used in the citation - and I'm not familiar with legal terminology anyway.
The person I'm describing received a citation along the lines of "profanity in front of children" in Idaho. His neighbor claimed that while he (the neighbor) was driving with his pre-teen son, my friend called him a "pussy". My friend was supposedly walking his dog at the time, and said it loud enough that it could be heard by the passengers in the car, with the windows down.
This wasn't classified as a disturbance of the peace, which is what I thought it would fall under. The key points of the citation were that there was a child present, and the actual word my friend supposedly used, which I would equate to a "swearing in front of children" offense of some sort.
Today he and his lawyer went to a hearing to try and get this charge dismissed, and it was dismissed. His lawyer argued that by constitutional rights, he could say such a word.
My friend is not admitting to having said this this word, so I guess his lawyer's argument was that even if he had said it, it wouldn't be illegal, making the question of whether or not he said it immaterial.
After this charge was dismissed, the DA decided to charge him with disturbing the peace, and the judge allowed this. He told me the DA said he was so adamant about pressing charges because there was a child involved in this (and those were the words of the DA).
I assume that because this happened in front of a judge, in a courtoom, with my friend's lawyer present that this is allowed by the legal process. But the obvious question is, why didn't the DA charge him with disturbing the peace in the first place? It would really appear to me that the DA is really grasping.
There were no witnesses to this event. It's my friend's word against his neighbor's. And my friend's neighbor has a history of calling the police on him after they got into a beef of some sort. I can give you one example, that according to my friend is documented. My friend was walking up the street carrying a wrench after helping someone with their vehicle. His neighbor called the police and said he was walking up the street pointing a gun at his house (mistaking the wrench for a gun). In this event, there were witnesses who confirmed that he was carrying a wrench, not a gun.
Also, where according to my friend his neighbor and the DA are trying to present this family as being very wholesome (which is why it's such a crime that my friend would have sworn in front of the child), there's a lot of evidence suggesting that they're not. We all know that most kids hear profanity on the television by the time they're ten or twelve, and I think it's ridiculous to the point of being inadmissable in court to claim that this child in particular hasn't been around a lot of swearing. He and his siblings have a history of juvenile offenses. And not too long ago my friend looked at his neighbor's "family myspace page" and saw that one of his friends had made the comment on his page that the next time he comes up to visit they're going to smoke pot.
I know that "BS" isn't a legal term, but assuming that what I'm hearing is true, there's so much BS that I think some of it would have to be identifiable by legal terms.
As a lawyer, is there anything about what I said, assuming that everything I said is true, that jumps out at you as sounding really off?
And would you think that a good lawyer in this position should be able to easily handle this?
Thanks again for your time.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?
Hi. I'm hoping I can describe a situation a friend of mine is in, and get any words of advice. Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this.
I don't know every last particular in this situation. I've seen the citation before, and I can assure you this is really happening, though I can't remember the terminology used in the citation - and I'm not familiar with legal terminology anyway.
The person I'm describing received a citation along the lines of "profanity in front of children" in Idaho. His neighbor claimed that while he (the neighbor) was driving with his pre-teen son, my friend called him a "pussy". My friend was supposedly walking his dog at the time, and said it loud enough that it could be heard by the passengers in the car, with the windows down.
This wasn't classified as a disturbance of the peace, which is what I thought it would fall under. The key points of the citation were that there was a child present, and the actual word my friend supposedly used, which I would equate to a "swearing in front of children" offense of some sort.
Today he and his lawyer went to a hearing to try and get this charge dismissed, and it was dismissed. His lawyer argued that by constitutional rights, he could say such a word.
My friend is not admitting to having said this this word, so I guess his lawyer's argument was that even if he had said it, it wouldn't be illegal, making the question of whether or not he said it immaterial.
After this charge was dismissed, the DA decided to charge him with disturbing the peace, and the judge allowed this. He told me the DA said he was so adamant about pressing charges because there was a child involved in this (and those were the words of the DA).
I assume that because this happened in front of a judge, in a courtoom, with my friend's lawyer present that this is allowed by the legal process. But the obvious question is, why didn't the DA charge him with disturbing the peace in the first place? It would really appear to me that the DA is really grasping.
There were no witnesses to this event. It's my friend's word against his neighbor's. And my friend's neighbor has a history of calling the police on him after they got into a beef of some sort. I can give you one example, that according to my friend is documented. My friend was walking up the street carrying a wrench after helping someone with their vehicle. His neighbor called the police and said he was walking up the street pointing a gun at his house (mistaking the wrench for a gun). In this event, there were witnesses who confirmed that he was carrying a wrench, not a gun.
Also, where according to my friend his neighbor and the DA are trying to present this family as being very wholesome (which is why it's such a crime that my friend would have sworn in front of the child), there's a lot of evidence suggesting that they're not. We all know that most kids hear profanity on the television by the time they're ten or twelve, and I think it's ridiculous to the point of being inadmissable in court to claim that this child in particular hasn't been around a lot of swearing. He and his siblings have a history of juvenile offenses. And not too long ago my friend looked at his neighbor's "family myspace page" and saw that one of his friends had made the comment on his page that the next time he comes up to visit they're going to smoke pot.
I know that "BS" isn't a legal term, but assuming that what I'm hearing is true, there's so much BS that I think some of it would have to be identifiable by legal terms.
As a lawyer, is there anything about what I said, assuming that everything I said is true, that jumps out at you as sounding really off?
And would you think that a good lawyer in this position should be able to easily handle this?
Thanks again for your time.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?