What plea deal can you make in a 3rd degree felony assault against public servant in Texas?

Question

I'm dating a girl who is currently facing a FELONY charge of assault on public servant with bodily injury.  It's a case of a good person doing something very stupid.

Trying to make this as succinct as possible. She had too much to drink on a girls night out and caused a scene at her apartment complex at 2 AM and someone next door called 911. A zealous female police responded to the call. The lady officer is claiming that when she showed up that my girl became upset and charged up to the officer and started fighting her. A witness has made a sworn statement that my girl never charged her but just was very upset and intoxicated but never a threat other than just yelling and cursing at the police to mind her own business. Yes, she was drunk and stupid but the witness said that she was leaving the scene when the officer ran up and pushed her into a wall and knocked to the ground when my girl had her back turned to walk back to her apartment to sleep it off. She was arrested and booked on assault to public servant with bodily injury, a 3rd degree felony in Texas.

She is quiet, sweet person who clearly had too much to drink and made a scene but now faces very serious consequences. She had no priors, works and goes to school part time and overall a good citizen. There was obviously a scuffle but feel like the officer escalated it just as the girl was about to go home anyways. I'm worried that since she is indigent and has a public defender that she will be railroaded and that she might be doing time with a 3rd degree felony charge (2 years in jail AT LEAST).

Has someone been charged with this? If so, did you take a plea bargain to avoid a trial and if so, then what the lesser charge? I understand that she needs to talk to her defense lawyer but just want to see what has happened to other people in this situation.

Lexie · Accepted Answer

Don't be so down on public defenders.  I was a prosecutor and the PDs I dealt with worked very hard and got good deals for their clients.

What I used to do with a charge like that, if the defendant had no record and there were some possibly extenuating circumstances, is to talk to the officer who was the victim of the offense, find out how badly they were hurt.  If it was minor, I'd ask if they minded if I pled the case assault without injury.  Often they were fine with that.  They didn't want to see the person get off scot-free, but they didn't mind a plea to a lesser charge.  Resisting arrest would be another possible charge.

I don't know all the facts (and neither do you), and I don't know how badly the officer was injured.

I'm sure her lawyer will do the best he or she can.

jaymes_07 · Answer

There is no such thing as a standard plea deal. If you want to get an idea of what sort of time she is realistically looking at then you need to talk with her lawyer who will know the prosecutor assigned to the case (and what sort of offers they make) and the Judge the case is in front of.

Even an identical case also in Texas can play out very differently with different DA's and Judges assigned to the case. Nobody here can tell you what is going to happen.

bunnychica1984 · Answer

I think you need to chat with the DA and see how serious they would take the case as felony. It sounds like she just did something stupid when she was drunk. My ex had a similar incident and the case was eventually dropped b/c the cop who arrested him for assault eventually left the force due to an internal review of his behavior on related incidents Maybe she will get lucky as these things take time to work themselves through the system.

Good luck!

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What plea deal can you make in a 3rd degree felony assault against public servant in Texas?

3 Answers