June 19, 2013
- Steven Topazio wrote this May 5, 2014 at 3:12 am
The client, a 76 year old retired oil delivery man, was arrested for assault and battery after getting into an altercation with his 55 year old son and allegedly punching him in the back of the head. The client initially represented himself in court but when the court told the client he could go to jail, he hired Boston Criminal Attorney Steven J. Topazio. The client owns a three family building in Quincy where he lives on one floor, his son on a different floor, and a female tenant on the first floor. According to the police report, the client’s son (and also the alleged victim) told police that he got hit after getting into an argument with his father when his father learned that he had broken into the first floor apartment because he lost his keys to the building. The son later told the tenant of the first floor apartment that he had broken in to gain access to the building and apologized profusely for what happened but also said he so called “pleasured himself” in the tenant’s bed. The police report then stated that the son thought the incident was over until his father, the client, began yelling at him for entering the 1st floor apartment and for saying what he had done in the tenant’s bed, which caused the tenant to move out. The son accused the client of being sick at which point the client allegedly lashed out, punching his son once in the back of the head. Attorney Topazio learned that upon confronting the son about breaking into the 1st floor apartment, the client told his son to move out and the son ran by the client causing the client to lose his balance and to reach out to regain his balance and, in the process, grabbed the son in back of the neck. The client’s attempt to regain his balance failed causing him to fall and injure himself. Attorney Topazio developed a trial strategy whereby he acknowledged that his client made unintended contact with his son and argued that the contact was accidental. Under Massachusetts law, a person can only be found guilty of assault and battery for intentional contact. Accidental contact is not a crime. Today, at trial, Attorney Topazio persuaded the court to dismiss the case.