Man cleared of sex assault on young girl after experts tell court he was sleepwalking

The Daily Mail (U.K.) / various ^ | December 31, 2008

[Tax-chick]

LOL! Excellent points! (And we are unfair to skunks.) Perhaps the “sleepwalking” defense has a long and storied history :-).

[ApplegateRanch]

experts agreed Mr Ball was sleepwalking blind drunk at the time and did not know what he was doing.

Voluntary diminishment of capacity should be an exacerbating, not a mitigating, circumstance.

[ApplegateRanch]

We often see the word “assault” and think it means hitting, shooting, or other physical harm, but that’s often not the meaning in law.

The way it was taught to us in Oregon & California, was that 'assault' occurs when there is a credible or actual attempt to inflict bodily harm: i.e, throwing a punch or kick whether or not it connects.

Battery, OTOH, is actual touching, as in the punch, slap, kick, etc actually makes physical contact with another...whether that was the intended target or not.

One can assault one person; fail to connect, and also be guilty of battery by accidentally hitting a third party.

Example: A swings at B; B ducks, and C, standing nearby is struck A. Assault upon B; battery upon C.

[Tax-chick]

Good explanation. In Texas, though, assault could be verbal as well as a physical effort.

[ApplegateRanch]

California, it depended on who to whom.

Welfare momma screaming out her open door “if you tell him anything, I’ll kill you, you F’n B*,” when Mrs. AR was telling a cop that she saw her ‘man’ hit three cars, including mine, after bouncing off a dumpster, then run inside; and was telling the cop which apartment to visit: not assault nor a ‘threat’.

Me, to next door neighbor teens that entered (uninvited, after removing a board in the back fence) a friend’s house while we were there having dinner; they refused her repeated orders to leave; grabbed our meals off the table, to which I responded (asked to by our hostess) with “get out before I THROW your worthless punk @5535 out!” That WAS “verbal assault”, though the cops (called by their parents after they arrived back home) ‘only’ gave me a warning.

[Tax-chick]

Wonderful place, California. Sounds like British law enforcement there!