common assault of a police officer: will he get a custodial sentence?
my partner was dragged out of his car by police officers, he resisted arrest as they did not tell him why they were doing so. he was pushed onto the floor by two officers and was taken to the station.
He was charged with two assaults on both police officers, driving without a license or insurance. first of all he has a license and insurance. when he attended court they threw out those charges, but persisted with the assault charges. he has to appear in court at a later date, what is the likely outcome for this case?
meanie Fri 16/05/08 19:05
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Where the police in uniform? if so why did he resist? Has he got a previous record? Why was he stopped in the first place? was there anyone else in the car who could be a witness or maybe a passerby? Otherwise it sounds like your partners word against 2 policemen. Who do you think the courts will believe?
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If the officers were in the course of their duty the offence is not common assault but assault on a PC. This is a more serious offence and magistrates' sentencing guidelines suggest a starting point (for a first time offender pleading not guilty) of custody.
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Question Author
to ethandron, they were in uniform. he resisted as he was trying to show them his license and insurance details, as he is often harassed for the same reason. but they did not allow him to get them, instead, they were attacking him. we took pictures of his injuries and the hospital said his muscles were definately pulled.
sorry i didnt make myself clear, he was charged with common assault and assault on the police officers. there were'nt any witnesses, i guess it will be just his word against the two of them.
would it help that, their reason for stopping and holding him down were thrown out. or, is it now a seperate case of his alleged attacks?
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Question Author
what do you mean by that noknowledge?
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Why did he resist? In your reply you say he was trying to show them his insurance etc yet in your original question you said that the police did not tell him 'why they were doing so'
If you cannot get the story straight on here your partner has no hope in court.
If you don't tell us the full story we will only jump to conclusions and at the moment it sounds like your partner is so stupid he deserves everything he gets.
All he had to do was get out of the car and then show his documents to the police, be polite and no doubt he would have been on his way very soon afterwards.
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Question Author
Im unsure if you have a opinion on the case before understanding what i am trying to say. he has been stopped on a number of occasions and is always asked for insurance and license, SO HE KEEPS IT IN THE CAR. so in this case he assumed it was for the same thing and tried to resist and explain that he has his details in the car.
as for the previous person, i really dont appreciate your comments, maybe you dont get harassed like some people and dont like to wish things onto people, but i hope that one day you get to experience how injust the police can behave!!
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MEANIE-
If the police in your local area are anything like mine, than theres is a BIG chance they did attack your partner for NO reason! The y know they can get away with it so they take the p?ss..
This is why people like your partner dont report it because no-one belives them! Just because they are police officers doesnt mean they are perfect!
Hope it goes ok for your partner!
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Question Author
Now do you believe that police make unforgivable mistakes?! And can be malicious, spiteful and unneccessarily VIOLENT??
You can check youtube for several videos of met police (UK) doing worse. ( I only put this up, cos it's sky news, so no-one else can accuse me of being a liar/exaggerating. Also randyraven, i did not ask for your opinion on police, i explained my partners case to get a professional opinion on the outcome of such a case. Also our lawyers are in the process of obtaining cctv footage.
beck07 - thank you I hope it does too.
YouTube video link: sky news covering the case of police officers unlawful behaviour
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I am still at a loss to understand why your partner resisted.
If I was a police officer having to approach someone in a car who refused to get out and then went to reach for something (in this case documents) I would drag that person out of the car as quickly as possible. How was the policman to know that your partner was reaching for documents and not a gun??? After all even if thats what your partner said he was doing I would not have believed him. He is not likely to say I'm reaching for a gun.
I'm afraid thats what a court will most likely think as well.
What time of day was this? and is your partner known to the police?
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Question Author
he had stopped trying to get to the documents when they began running to the car and dragged him out immediately. from my research on stopping people for whatever reason, it is not carried out in that manner. He wasn't speeding or driving reckless. so there really isn't an initial reason for asking him to pull over let alone drag him out the car. as far as im concerned i thought police had a system which could check licence plates to see if the car is insured or not - which it is. so what were their reasons for this aasualt on my partner, he is in every right to resist as they did not explain their reasons for stopping him, as if they did he would of produced his full uk driving license and insurance certificate.
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There is something that you are not telling us. Is your partner known to the police for violence, drugs etc?
Police do not randomly stop someone then run to their car and drag them out. There is a reason that you are not telling us.
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I'm sorry meanie, but most of the posters are correct in questioning why your partner resisted arrest in the first place. If he has been pulled over several times he should know the drill by now:
When you are signalled to pull over, do so in a convenient place, turn off the engine, open the driver side window and put both hands on the steering wheel. Do not move unless they they tell you to do so. The reason for this is that they don't have a clue what you're going to pull out of your glove box or off the passenger seat...it could easily be a gun. This has happened in the past.
From what you've said, it seems like your partner was just upset at having been pulled over again so decided to be awkward and resist. If he had stayed calm he wouldn't be in this situation.
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Question Author
to nic121, i totally understand what your saying, he shouldn't of resisted. the police seem to be getting away with things like this too often. they treat innocent people any way they like and when their trying to get a point across they arrest them and charge for assault its unfair. the point i made at the beginning still hasn't been addressed. everyone is trying to say he must of done something wrong firstly - when really he hadn't.
and to ethandron he is not known to the police not for drugs or anything. he is a hardworking man and father, so i would appreciate any assumptions to be dropped now, because it seems as though most people are making them and i have actually had enough of trying to find out a simple answer of custody or not, it just seems to be upsetting me more than anything. i have noticed that people have been prosecuting my partner, but no one is talking about the system police have to check for insured cars and why that was not used. police are not completely innocent, they are human just like the rest of us. the same way you have made up your minds that my partner must be a criminal, you could have said that the police are not using facilities available to them and are stopping people for no reason. i didnt know that the answers will be so stereotypical and one sided on this answer bank.
in saying that thank you to the realistic people, who have an open mind who should be answering questions on this site.
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Like everyone on here I cannot understand why your partner resisted. Even you agree that he should not have resisted. Thats why I felt that there had to be something else.
the system that the police use to check vehicle insurance is a computer database and like all computer systems it relies on correct and up to date information, in this case from insurance companies. Maybe your partner's information was not correct (not your partner's fault but the insurance company) but that is enough of a reason to stop your partner.
I have been stopped by the police on quite a few occasions over the years (including 2 negative breath tests) and have always been polite to the police and they have been very polite back. I have even joked with them and them back to me.
So what we are left with is that your partner claims to have been pulled over by the police, they ran to his car, dragged him out and assaulted him for the fun of it.
Seriously - do you not see how hard it is to believe you.
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Question Author
i am not on this site to make you believe me that was never my intention. i explained the story exactly how it is and frankly i cant be bothered to defend my partner against your stupid alegations. at the end of the day your not going to decide what happens to him so i really don't care anymore about what you think.
if you lived in my area it is not uncommon for idol police to wait to start trouble over nothing. so you will never understand and to be honest you don't seem to be living in the real world because police are not perfect. i have spoken to a friend of mine who is a police officer, and she even said that some treat people like that because they know they can and that they wont complain. also about the database, if they know that it is prone not to be updated (although he has been insured since last year) they should not treat as if he has commited an offence and could of simply asked for proof of insurance and license to drive - which he could of provided.
to be honest with you, i would really prefer that you don't reply because you are really stressing me out with your ignorance!
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If you put such an unlikely story on the answer bank you have to expect that people will question it or not believe you. This is exactly what will happen in court. The best thing your partner could do is plead guilty and then he will receive a lesser sentence than pleading not guilty and being found guilty. I think that the guidelines for sentencing are prison.
You just want to hope that I am not on the bench.
As for you being stressed, well with such an idiot for a partner I'm not surprised.
As for me being ignorant, I can live with that because I am not going to prison.
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All the girl wanted was an answer and some of you took it upon yourselves to judge and for whatever reaosn try to argue with her. I have never been in trouble with the police in my life and I saw my boyfriend be assulted by 7 officers when all he was doing was making a complaint (he in the past has had run ins with the police but is now working and leading a normal life and has been for many years) and now somehow he is going to court for assult on four. Now I was also there making the same complaint and they did not lay one finger on me. Officers abuse their power and I have witnessed it for myself. If police want to get somebody then they will lie and make up any story to get them sent down. I will let you know the outcome in court.
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Question Author
Thank you to the few people who understood my problem with the police.
To everyone else who thought my partner was a to blame for their attack on him, i would just like update you. medical reports taken by the doctor after the attack, showed that the police had no form of injury not even a scratch. however my partner had a whole list of injuries (which will be claimed for). the case was thrown out and was a total waste of time and energy. this highlights your ignorance, and i strongly advice that you wake up and notice what happens around you.
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Well done manie - ive been assaulted by police - they think they have the right to do what ever they please. When i was assaulted By them i did not fight back at all - it is de-humanising and demorilising that just because they ahave a uniform on you have to take being kicked stood on, kneed and punched without the right to respond or defend yourself. The individulas in here have no perception of police behaviour - but be warned it may happen to you as it did to me - and yes I was doing nothing wrong at all, was beaten and then charged with assulting them!
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