Spousal Immunity and Domestic Violence Cases

Sep 18, 2013

OUTCOME: Dismissal

This case was a classic example of the power of spousal immunity and how it can be used to dispose of assault, interrupting a communication device, or any other domestic violence related offense. My ... client was attempting to injure himself do to marital issues when his wife stepped in to try and stop him, he grabbed her wrist and held it away from him so he could continue to try and injure himself and he told her that if she kept this up she could get hurt. She later called the cops and when the officers arrived they of course started looking for something they could charge my client with. After investigating the incident the officers arrested my client and he was ultimately charged with assault, domestic violence, and threat of violence. It was never the "victim's" intention to get her husband in trouble and she did not consider herself a victim she just wanted the police help protect her husband from herself. So she refused to testify and wrote a letter to the prosecutor stating that she would not be testifying and would invoke her spousal immunity. The prosecutor was eventually forced to dismiss the case because without the "victims" testimony he had no evidence.