somewhat serious legal advice needed...

[John Prophet]

Lets see, how to put this?...

I have a "friend"..yeah, friend, thats the ticket...who has found himself in the middle of a legal battle.

Heres the scenario...an individual, lets call him "joe" went and assaulted a woman , bruised her up, terrified her and acted like he was going to rape her..but he didnt rape her. Lets call her "sue"

OK, "sue" came to her son..lets call him "Bill"...about 2 hrs later and told him what happened. Upon which "Bill" instantly called the police who sent an officer over to talk to sue and Bill...after talking to the officer they went to the magistrate and took out a warrant on Joe.

Well Joe lives next door to sue and after he got his warrant served to him he began taking out warrants on her for "trespassing"..he said she was using his driveway to turn her car around in. he has filed 3 warrants for trespassing against her.

he also took out a warrant againt sue's son bill for trespassing in the same manner. The warrants for trespassing are totally made-up and fabricated.

Then about 2 weeks after the original incident happened Bill was at his mother sue's house and bill was going to his car to go get pizza...well, joe comes out of his house stands on his porch and yells at bill saying "if you have something to say to my wife say it to me mother*&%$er" to which bill replies "joe, when have I even SEEN your wife??" to which joe says "she was on the back porch and you called her a 'ho...dont speak to my wife". (of course it was all made up too, bill never even thought about speaking to joes wife.)

So Bill gets his pizza, eats it and proceeds to take out another warrant for joe for abusive language.

A few days later, a cop knocked on bills door with his warrant for trespassing (which I already mentioned)...and while he was delivering the warrant the cop told bill that he was just at joes house giving him his warrant and that Joe had said that he saw bill earlier that night and bill had assaulted joe! lol.

So then a day or so later Joe had filed a warrant againt bill for assault and battery. of course the incident was totally made up and it never happened as Bill was at the Bible study he always goes to on that nite...he was with 4 witnesses including his pastor. Joe went the full distance with his little charade even somehow giving himself a bruise on the eye which he went to the hospital for!

(on a side note joe contacted someone else in bill and sues family sayin please dont take out more warrants on him and if they drop their charges he will drop his.) lol..fat chance..theres no way bill and sue would drop any of this.

so let me recap here to get on the sam epage before I ask my question lol

Joe assaulted sue, bruised her up, acted like he was gonna rape her.

Joe also used abusive language to bill, sues son.

The other incidents of "trespassing" and "assault" againt joe never happned, they are totally fictitous...Joe is a pathological liar, and its possible he believes his own little delusions. if/when he has to testify he will no doubt trip himself up a dozen times due to the way he lies and makes stuff up on the spot...plus he has an extensive criminal record in three states including at least one assault that happened while he was on probation...(and 1 or more breaking and entering etc)

So here are the warrants at this time.

One against joe for assault and battery
one against joe for abusive language

three against sue for trespassing

one against bill for trespassng
one against bill for assault and battery.

Obviously joe filed his warrants after the first warrant was filed on him.

Now, they are all going to court and have all these tried at one time most likely. Joe has public defender for the charges againt him...Bill and sue have a lawyer to defend the silly charges againt them.

here is the question...if joe indeed is found guilty of the assault (and probably the abusive language) and if the judge sees thru his little lies and probably throws out the charges joe filed or at least finds bill and sue innocent of all wrongdoing......can Bill and sue then take out any further warrants against joe for things like "swearing out false accusations" or anything along that line?? What if the judge catches joe in some of his blatant pitiful lies..will he possible charge him with contempt or false testimony or anything of that nature?

next question being, if Bill and sue do indeed win their cases and joe is shown to be a liar...can bill and sue then file a civil case againt joe and sue him for all of there attorney fees etc?

if joe is dead broke and they sue him and win how can they get their money?

You may be able to tell from the tone that this is not a hypothetical situation.

I know most of you are not lawyers but perhaps someone has experience with some of this....

Bill and sue are meeting with a lawyer on monday and they will also ask him all these questions (plus others surely) but maybe if any of you have any experience it will help them to ask the right questions.

Oh yeah, lets say for arguments sake they live in virginia, lol.

Any ideas? Thanks, JP

[John Prophet]

Oh yeah forgot one little detail...sue is well known in neighborhood for being a nice christian woman, she reaches out to the minority kids etc etc...well, she noticed one day the kids acted afraid of her , they didnt speak back when she said hi to them..so she asked them were they mad at her for some reason...they said that joe had told them and others that sue molests kids!!

Surely if any of them will testify about it then that has to be a charge of libel or slandering or defimation of character??

That would come into play in civil case yes??

JP

[J-Excel]

My advise is let the lawyer sort it out. Sounds like the guy may also end up being charged for filing a false report to police.

[John Prophet]

police charge that or does Bill and sue?? or does Bill and sue ask them to?

[J-Excel]

I think the charges will have to be proven false first. But that's something to be discussed with the lawyer.

[John Prophet]

Any idea what lawyers charge for this sort of thing?

Same lawyer would defend against 5 charges altogether..4 trespassing and 1 assault.

The assault has 4 witnesses placing bill elsewhere..the trespassing are similarly ridiculous with 1 each filed against sue and bill on same day when they went 1 place with 1 car lol. and neither car was thiers, so if joe says "bill was in my driveway" and then "sue was in my driveway" he lies twice .

[J-Excel]

It'll probably just cost the 5 minutes to discuss it with the lawyer. Just bring it up when they talk about the assault on "Sue". If he's charged with filing a false report they wouldn't need a lawyer for that trial (doubt there would even be one). They would be witnesses and the DA would be the lawyer.

[NeoStarO1]

I'd have to side with JExel. Let the lawyers sort it out. The lawyer will know what to do. As for after the courts and if charges are dropped and such, I personally wouldn't go after him for a civil suit to reclaim attorney fees. Why? you will only spark more problems. I'd try to get this resolved with the courts (let the attorneys do it) and get this stuff behind you and let it go at that.

[Epidemic]

Well not going after him civilly because it could spark more problems???

I do not know how much more problematic than assault and battery(possible rape) by a long time criminal. I think you already have problems. Making nice at this point does not seem possible to me.

[John Prophet]

Well, all of these will be tried on the same day and I cant see Bill and Sue going to court and each facing multiple charges themselves without a lawyer. A lawyer mght motion to get some or all of these obviously trumped up charges thrown out of court. If Bills car breaks down he goes to see a mechanic, if he needs a haircut he goes to a stylist, when he needs legal help I doubt he would wade into court without a lawyer.

Its not like the judge will automatically say "these charges are bogus"....its gonna take some cross examination of the facts...thats what lawyers do for a living.

As far as not going after him in a civil case....lets look at it.

bill and sue are minding theor own business going about their lives in peace....Joe, out of the blue, attacks sue...bruises her all up, acts like he is going to rape her, makes her live in fear etc etc then lies about sue and her son and brings all kinds of false charges against them...for which they will have to spend tme and $$$ to defend themselves while all along they did nothing wrong.
If Bill spends, say, $500 for attorney fees...I doubt he is gonna take that lying down....would you just throw away $500 or more cuz a petty criminal puts you in a bad situation?? What if joe only gets 12 months, 10 of that suspended....is that punishment enough for all that he has done?? I doubt Bill or Sue either one will see it that way.

As far as "sparking more trouble"...I guess when there is a raging fire blazing, one tends not to worry about sparks very much.

So does anyone have a clue about fees and what a lawyer might charge for this sort of thing?

JP