Domestic Assault and Disorderly Conduct
A mother and daughter had an altercation for which the daughter was charged with both Domestic Assault and Domestic Disorderly Conduct. The incident occurred one evening when the daughter returned home after being out drinking with a group of friends. Upon returning home, the daughter realized she left behind some of her personal belongings at the restaurant or bar where she had been drinking. As a result, she intended to drive herself in order to retrieve them. Appearing to be intoxicated, the mother did not want her daughter to drive.
She expressed her concerns, but the daughter was unresponsive. The daughter left the house, entered her vehicle and started the car. The mother came after her pleading with her not to drive. The daughter remained unresponsive. The mother opened the passenger side door, got half way inside and was trying to persuade the daughter not to drive. She refused to get out of the car as the daughter had repeatedly requested. The daughter then put the vehicle in park, exited the driver’s side of the car and walked around to the passenger side to physically remove mom from the car. The two struggled, the daughter to remove mom from the car and mom to either stay inside or prevent the daughter from driving. This struggle was observed by a number of bystanders who resided in their apartment complex. A passing car ultimately stopped during the struggle at which time an occupant of the car exited the vehicle, approached the mother and daughter who were in the midst of a physical struggle and pulled the daughter off of her mother in an attempt to break the incident up. An unknown bystander notified police who arrived on scene moments later.
Police separated mom and daughter and interviewed all people on scene. Based on the reported observations, police arrived the daughter and charged her with both Domestic Assault and Domestic Disorderly Conduct. The daughter retained Attorney John Calcagni to represent her against these charges. The young woman had no criminal record, had recently graduated college, was temporarily living with mom and was in the midst of applying for jobs as a school teacher. Accordingly, she needed to maintain a clean record. Attorney Calcagni, after conducting his own pretrial investigation that included interviewing mom, successfully negotiated for the dismissal of this case. He then successfully sealed the case thereby removing it from the girl’s record. Congratulations and best wishes to this prospective school teacher.