Children Present During A Los Angeles Domestic Violence Incident
I've done a lot of these domestic violence cases over the last twenty-five years, and whenever there are children present during domestic violence, that makes things much more challenging to resolve. The prosecutors and the judges tend to be much harsher when a child is involved. Especially if somehow the child is being abused in any way, the prosecutors will come down particularly hard on those types of cases.
I've also done restraining orders, and a lot of times, the judges don't like to let children testify when it comes to parents and domestic violence. They don't want the child involved at all. But, in the criminal court, it's just the opposite.
The prosecutors and the police, and even, I think, judges to some degree — even though they never admit it — believe the children are the best witnesses because they're not going to lie when it comes to a father striking a mother. Therefore, the child is going to be believed.
A lot of times, juries who listen to these domestic violence cases sit there and listen to what the child has to say, and they tend to believe those children.
The issue becomes, does the child have an axe to grind? Is the child somebody who would lie for one parent over the other? Have they been coached in some way? Have they been coerced?
Once you get past that hurdle, the jury will believe what those children see because they are just seeing what they see and dealing with whatever it is.
So, children are potent witnesses for prosecutors and defense. Sometimes, the defense can use children and say listen, the child was there.
The child was present. The wife, for example, is claiming that the husband hit her or pushed her or did something illegal to her, but the child didn't see it.
Child Witness for Divorce-Related Cases in Los Angeles
The child was right there and would have seen it if it happened. So, this is one of these situations where I see individuals trying to get an upper hand in a divorce-related case. As part of trying to get that upper hand, they're now going to try to claim that somebody battered them, hurt them, cut them, threatened to stab them, threatened to kill them, and these are horrible crimes.
If the person gets convicted of them, not only will they have a criminal record or all sorts of issues in criminal court—potentially jail time or a strike if it's a criminal threat—but they'll also lose the advantage in a divorce case, and the other spouse knows that.
So, a lot of time, they're going to try to use that, and if there's a child present, the next thing you know, the spouse that's complaining they were domestically abused is in a position where they can now take full custody of the children, and if the person's working, then they're going to have to pay them more money, and it's a real nasty thing sometimes when spouses make things up related to children, and it's a situation where the child is now put in a challenging position in having to testify potentially for or against one of the parents.
But the bottom line is this: if there are children present during a domestic violence situation, they're going to put extra enhancements on. I've seen them put child endangerment charges.
They're going to want jail time. They're going to enjoy all sorts of extra punishments because they don't want children to be a part of a situation where there's domestic violence in the home, so they will charge that person with a grave crime.
So, if you've got a domestic violence case where children were present, there are child endangerment charges, you're looking at losing custody of your children, you're looking at jail time, give me a call. We'll sit down and talk and get a game plan together.
