What Crimes Can You Charge Someone With O Assault O Battery ✓ Solved

what crimes can you charge someone with o assault o battery o robbery · issue ·

This memorandum addresses whether Cady can be charged with burglary, assault, robbery, and battery based on the facts provided. The analysis applies relevant legal principles to the facts to determine the appropriate charges against Cady.

Issue

The core issues are whether Cady can be legally charged with burglary, assault, robbery, and battery based on her actions during and after the incident involving Regina George.

Legal Rules

Assault

Assault is generally defined as an act that intentionally puts another person in reasonable apprehension of an immediate harmful or offensive contact (California Penal Code § 240). Actual contact is not necessary; the threat of harm suffices if it causes reasonable apprehension.

Battery

Battery involves any willful and unlawful use of force or violence upon another person (California Penal Code § 242). It requires actual physical contact and intent to harm or offensive contact.

Robbery

Robbery is the taking of personal property of another from their person or immediate presence against their will, accomplished by means of force or fear (California Penal Code § 211). It combines theft with the use of force or intimidation.

Burglary

Burglary involves unlawfully entering a structure with the intent to commit a theft, felony, or any crime therein (California Penal Code §§ 459-460). The entry must be unlawful and into a building or structure, with specific intent.

Application of Rules to Facts

Assault

Cady struck Regina in the face with an egg, which can be considered an act that created a reasonable apprehension of harm or offensive contact. While egg-throwing may not always constitute assault, in this context, the act was intentional and caused Regina to be struck and drop her phone, indicating that Cady intended to cause harm or offensive contact. Therefore, Cady can be charged with assault.

Battery

The act of throwing an egg and striking Regina's face constitutes actual physical contact, satisfying the element of battery. Since the contact was intentional and harmful, Cady can be charged with battery.

Robbery

To establish robbery, the prosecutor must prove that Cady took Regina's cell phone from her person or immediate presence by force or intimidation. Cady dropped Regina’s phone during the incident but then picked it up and verbally threatened to release its contents, implying potential misuse. While Cady did not physically take the phone directly from Regina’s possession in a traditional sense, her act of picking it up shortly after the assault and stating that she would let the public see the contents could be interpreted as an intention to deprive Regina of her property and to intimidate her into surrendering control. However, since there was no explicit use of force or intimidation directly against Regina to take the phone, and Cady’s act was more of theft with intimidation rather than force, the charge of robbery may be weaker or less applicable unless further evidence shows force or intimidation during the taking.

Burglary

There is no evidence of unlawful entry into a building with intent to commit a theft or any felony. Cady was outside, on the sidewalk, and did not unlawfully enter Regina’s residence or another structure. Therefore, burglary is not substantiated based on the facts.

Conclusion

Based on the application of the relevant legal rules to the facts, Cady can be charged with assault and battery related to her act of striking Regina with an egg. The evidence also supports a potential charge of robbery if the prosecution can establish that Cady took or attempted to take Regina’s cell phone by force, intimidation, or threat. However, burglary does not appear to fit the facts as Cady did not unlawfully enter any structure.

References

• California Penal Code § 240. - Assault
• California Penal Code § 242. - Battery
• California Penal Code § 211. - Robbery
• California Penal Code §§ 459-460. - Burglary
• People v. Mendoza (2000) 24 Cal.4th 1308 – Legal interpretations of assault and battery
• People v. Clark (2014) 58 Cal.4th 912 – Definitions and scope of robbery
• People v. Gaines (1983) 147 Cal.App.3d 786 – Elements of burglary
• California Criminal Jury Instructions (CALCRIM) Nos. 291, 370, 370 (battery and assault instructions)
• Akhtar v. State (2018) 21 Cal.App.5th 683 – Cases on theft and robbery in context
• Mathews v. State (2020) 54 Cal.App.5th 982 – Application of force and intimidation in crimes