What is the name of your state? Illinois but occurred in Missouri.
I am looking for advice in a situation that I found myself in. Recently, we as a family went to hotel about 100 miles from our home in another state. There was my wife and myself, son and girlfriend and daughter and boyfriend. We had all went to the lounge and at the end of the day was going to our rooms. We stopped by my daughter’s room to make sure that she was alright since she was acting up and we had asked her to go on to her room. As we came by to check on her the boyfriend became confrontational and then knocked my wife to the ground after she said to just calm down. At that point I pushed him back and he struck me and I fell to the floor breaking my finger. My son came over and he started to fight with him. Charges were filed against him and he retaliated by charging my son and me. The charge was assault stating that I pushed him and threatened him. We have an unbiased witness which gave an account of most of what happened. According to the summons we were given a court date was set to answer the charges, if we fail to show it states that it would be considered a guilty plea and the monies we paid would be applied to that. While I don’t feel that I am guilty of a crime is it worth fighting the charges or is there more to this than I am seeing. If I fight the charges I can see several trips to this town and I am not sure of the legal fees. I really don’t have the means to apply to this. Having never dealt with the legal system in any manner I would appreciate some advice. Prior to this there were no ill feelings or words between anyone. As you can imagine this has turned into a nightmare and can’t wait to put this behind us.
I am looking for advice in a situation that I found myself in. Recently, we as a family went to hotel about 100 miles from our home in another state. There was my wife and myself, son and girlfriend and daughter and boyfriend. We had all went to the lounge and at the end of the day was going to our rooms. We stopped by my daughter’s room to make sure that she was alright since she was acting up and we had asked her to go on to her room. As we came by to check on her the boyfriend became confrontational and then knocked my wife to the ground after she said to just calm down. At that point I pushed him back and he struck me and I fell to the floor breaking my finger. My son came over and he started to fight with him. Charges were filed against him and he retaliated by charging my son and me. The charge was assault stating that I pushed him and threatened him. We have an unbiased witness which gave an account of most of what happened. According to the summons we were given a court date was set to answer the charges, if we fail to show it states that it would be considered a guilty plea and the monies we paid would be applied to that. While I don’t feel that I am guilty of a crime is it worth fighting the charges or is there more to this than I am seeing. If I fight the charges I can see several trips to this town and I am not sure of the legal fees. I really don’t have the means to apply to this. Having never dealt with the legal system in any manner I would appreciate some advice. Prior to this there were no ill feelings or words between anyone. As you can imagine this has turned into a nightmare and can’t wait to put this behind us.