Contacting defendent in past trial

[rollie1]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas.

Hi everyone. When I was a senior in high school, my best friend and I went to a party that got very out of hand. There was a big fight, people were drunk, and as a result my friend kicked me so hard that it knocked one of my teeth out and broke my jaw. She apologized the next day and asked if we would still be friends, but my parents were so outraged at the medical bills that they decided to press charges against her and won. She didn't do any jail time but did have to pay for everything, and it was a huge fiasco at school. We were both over 18 at the time, and we never spoke again.

I haven't spoken to her in years (we're both 21 now) but as we had been best friends for so long, I now feel like contacting her to get back in touch. I know it was just drunk people being stupid and if she hadn't been unlucky enough to actually break something none of this would have happened. However seeing as we did press charges against her, I am wondering if I were to text/call her out of the blue would it be considered some form of harassment? Is there a law to restrict personal contact with people you have been on trial against?

Thank you

 

[tranquility]

If you just want to write or email what you said here, it's not going to be harassment. If they don't reply or reply poorly, stop contact and move on.

 

[dave33]

If you were over 18, how could your parents be involved at all? Besides (of course) forcing you to file a complaint and paying the bills.

 

[davew128]

Yes, how do parents "press charges" when they are neither the injured party nor legally responsible for the injured party?

 

[CavemanLawyer]

"Press charges" is a non-legal term. Anyone with knowledge of the crime can file a criminal complaint with the DA's Office. Its the DA's office that actually "presses charges" and its usually one of the officers that is the affiant on the complaint anyway, not the victim.

Anyway, the harassment statute is posted below. Like tranquility stated, a nonthreatening and non-confrontational single attempt to initiate contact with someone is not going to constitute harassment.

Sec. 42.07. HARASSMENT. (a) A person commits an offense if, with intent to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment, or embarrass another, he:

(1) initiates communication by telephone, in writing, or by electronic communication and in the course of the communication makes a comment, request, suggestion, or proposal that is obscene;

(2) threatens, by telephone, in writing, or by electronic communication, in a manner reasonably likely to alarm the person receiving the threat, to inflict bodily injury on the person or to commit a felony against the person, a member of his family or household, or his property;

(3) conveys, in a manner reasonably likely to alarm the person receiving the report, a false report, which is known by the conveyor to be false, that another person has suffered death or serious bodily injury;

(4) causes the telephone of another to ring repeatedly or makes repeated telephone communications anonymously or in a manner reasonably likely to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment, embarrass, or offend another;

(5) makes a telephone call and intentionally fails to hang up or disengage the connection;

(6) knowingly permits a telephone under the person's control to be used by another to commit an offense under this section; or

(7) sends repeated electronic communications in a manner reasonably likely to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment, embarrass, or offend another.

(b) In this section:

(1) "Electronic communication" means a transfer of signs, signals, writing, images, sounds, data, or intelligence of any nature transmitted in whole or in part by a wire, radio, electromagnetic, photoelectronic, or photo-optical system. The term includes:

(A) a communication initiated by electronic mail, instant message, network call, or facsimile machine; and

(B) a communication made to a pager.

(2) "Family" and "household" have the meaning assigned by Chapter 71, Family Code.

(3) "Obscene" means containing a patently offensive description of or a solicitation to commit an ultimate sex act, including sexual intercourse, masturbation, cunnilingus, fellatio, or anilingus, or a description of an excretory function.

(c) An offense under this section is a Class B misdemeanor, except that the offense is a Class A misdemeanor if the actor has previously been convicted under this section.