If you’ve been charged with or even accused of any form of assault, you are likely facing serious jail time – particularly if you’ve been charged with aggravated assault.
At Hiltner Trial Lawyers, our attorneys have successfully defended people charged with assault all over the United States.
There are many types of assault charges in Ohio and the United States, generally, each of which involve someone inflicting intentional harm on another person.
Sometimes, assault charges are misdemeanors. But when the charge is elevated to aggravated assault — a felony, and the most serious level of assault charge — it also requires the most proof of injuries.
Aggravated assault is defined as when the defendant knowingly or purposely caused serious bodily injury to another person.
Aggravated assault may be an assault crime committed with a weapon or with the intent to commit another serious crime (i.e., rape).
A 40-year-old Delaware County, Ohio man was charged with assaulting, raping, and kidnapping his wife in 2005. Max Hiltner was brought in to help try the case by local counsel. This case was originally dismissed, only to be reopened 11 years later in 2016. These charges rested on the word of the alleged victim and local police officers. If convicted, Hiltner’s client could have faced over 30 years in prison. During the four-day trial, Hiltner presented evidence of witness dishonesty and faulty investigation and advocated passionately for his client. This ultimately led the jury to find not guilty verdicts on all felony charges. Out of the 30 years in prison the client was facing, he received zero.
In Canton, Ohio, a hard-working young father was falsely accused by his ex-wife of assaulting her, and he was charged with domestic violence. If convicted, he stood to lose his job, custody over his son, and his reputation. At a jury trial, Hiltner cross-examined the supposedly neutral eyewitness and revealed through phone records that the defendant’s ex-wife had staged the whole incident and planted witnesses in an attempt to gain full custody of their child. After less than five minutes of deliberating, the jury found the client not guilty of all charges.
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