I represented Mr. W, who originally faced felony assault charges with six co-defendants arising from a group assault by members of one extended family on two other adults in a housing complex in Southeast. The government reduced the cases of Mr. W and three others to misdemeanor assault.
The parties tried those cases over about 12 days from March to May 2011. The crucial factual issues concerned what events one adult victim and several child witnesses were able to observe during a chaotic scene, and then relate at trial. At trial the government abandoned its theory that my client held a victim while another co-defendant struck him with a golf club. The judge concluded merely that Mr. W had thrown a punch.
The judge acquitted my client on one count of assault, but convicted him on the other assault count, a misdemeanor.