Penal Code 244 PC – Assault with Caustic Chemicals
Obviously, it is illegal in Los Angeles to assault someone with any type of a caustic substance – meaning some sort of a substance that can burn or cause damage to living tissue. This happens a lot in some of these different locations where guns are outlawed.
People tend to resort to other more dangerous items if they are looking to inflict great bodily injury, death or disfigurement on another person. Here in California the legislature, prosecutors and judges take these California Penal Code Section 244 violations very seriously.
It's really akin to assault with a deadly weapon. They are going to be looking at sending the person to prison for as long as they possibly can.
If you're charged with this Penal Code Section 244 violation and they're claiming you're throwing acid or some other substance on someone, they're obviously going to have to be able to show that you did this maliciously and intentionally with the intent to disfigure the other person. If it's an accident as to what happened, then obviously that's not going to be able to be proved under Penal Code Section 244 because there must be some sort of malicious intent.
What Is Required For A 244 Violation Throwing Acid On Someone?
As indicated above you have to show that the person had some sort of malicious intent and it wasn't some sort of an accident that caused whatever substance that is being used to get on the alleged victim in a case.
Also, it's going to have to cause some sort of serious disfigurement or damage – similar to mayhem where you injure somebody in a way that they cannot recover from the injury. In other words, cause some sort of a scar that will never go away or some other disfigurement – it's the same thing with throwing acid or some sort of a caustic substance on someone in Los Angeles County.
If you get that on them with the malicious intent to disfigure them, then they're going to charge you with the crime and they're going to be looking in these types of cases to send you to state prison.
So, obviously, if you're charged with throwing acid on someone or some other substance that caused some serious damage to the other party, you're going to want to sit down with a criminal defense attorney and let them know what happened, so they can figure out whether your case is something that can be fought in a jury trial, or whether it's a case that is appropriate for some sort of a plea bargain.
Defenses To Assault with a Caustic Substance
One potential defense could be self-defense. In other words, if somebody is trying to injure you in a way and is using some sort of deadly force against you – as a matter of self-defense in Los Angeles county – you are permitted to use the same deadly force that that person is using in order to defend yourself.
For example, if someone was trying to stab you with a knife which is certainly deadly force and you threw acid on them, then you would have an argument that it's self-defense because you're trying to defend yourself, so you're not mortally wounded.
Now, if someone was trying to punch you and you threw acid on them, that might be going too far. That may not meet the reasonableness standard as it relates to self-defense. Throwing some sort of a caustic substance on somebody is a serious offense and you'd really have to have justification for it.
Of course, you also have to bear in mind the authorities, the judge and of course any potential juror are going to be asking themselves, wait a minute – why do you even have acid in the first place? Why do you have this caustic substance and you're walking around with it versus if you think that somebody is really going to harm you – going to the police and handling things the right way.
So, that's something that obviously would be discussed in one of these cases and if you're charged with Penal Code Section 244 – throwing some sort of a caustic substance on somebody – you're going to want to sit down with an attorney and be honest with them and give them all the facts and details surrounding your case.
This includes your arrest, your background with the other party – because your attorney is going to be your champion and is going to be the one who tries to help you in figuring out what the best moves are. If you don't give them all the information related to the case and you're not completely honest with the attorney, they're not going to be playing with a full deck and they're not going to be able to fully represent you in your criminal manner.
Reviewing Best Case Strategy
What I do is I have you come in and we go over everything in the privacy of my office so obviously nobody can hear what we're saying and it's protected by the attorney-client privilege, even if you don't end up hiring me.
I need accuracy and honesty without any type of a spin and once I hear that, I can kind of give you an idea of what I think the defense should be and how we should handle the case moving forward, what you're looking at related to the Penal Code Section 244 violation.
What you could do to help me and then we can get a game plan together and figure out exactly what the best course of action is going to be in order to represent you the right way and get you the best possible result.
