Broward DUI Lawyer Blog

A second man has been arrested by West Palm Beach Police on charges that he participated in a Clematis Street beating that left a man fighting for his life, The Palm Beach Post reports.

The 23-year-old now faces a charge of felony battery, which is a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison. That's why hiring an experienced West Palm Beach Criminal Defense Attorney in order to fend off such serious charges is critical. Felony charges in West Palm Beach and Broward County are serious and can cause long-term consequences to those who are charged. Aggressively defending the charges is important.

Felony battery, under Florida Statutes 784.041, means a person intentionally strikes another person and causes either permanent disability, disfigurement or great bodily harm. The charge also applies to domestic violence incidents where a person is severely injured.

In this particular case, a 27-year-old Palm Beach Atlantic University pharmacy student was involved in a fight on Clematis Street one Sunday early morning. When police arrived, according to the newspaper, they found a man unconscious and bleeding from the head.

Surveillance video shows a man punching the man in the face, which caused him to fall to the ground. The man suffered a left orbital bone fracture, which caused bleeding to the brain. He is in a coma, according to the news report, and may not survive, police noted in a report.

A 21-year-old suspect was previously arrested and faces the same charge. That suspect allegedly admitted that he and a friend punched the man and the two fled to avoid capture. The most recent suspect arrested didn't speak to police without first getting a lawyer.

The news article doesn't say how the fight started or what led to the alleged battery. The story also doesn't say -- and police presumably haven't released -- what other details, possibly beneficial to the defendants, may have been found on the surveillance tape. They also haven't said how they identified these two people off of surveillance video and how clear the tape is.

Because of the severity of the charges, all of these areas must be explored and the holes in the investigation must be exploited before a jury. For two young people, facing charges that could mean a felony conviction on their record and possible prison time, an aggressive defense is the only acceptable defense.

Winning a fight in self defense is not a crime. Starting a fight and losing does not make someone a crime victim.

Additionally, mistaken identity is one of the main reasons innocent people are arrested by police, especially when police rely on shaky eyewitness testimony. Because the police standard is probable cause -- essentially a reasonable suspicion -- they can make arrests on evidence that has little shot of leading to a conviction.

The prosecution's burden -- proof beyond all reasonable doubt -- is much higher and that's why many charges aren't filed by the state, even after an arrest. Police consider their job done if they make an arrest, but an arrest means very little in the criminal justice system. That's why hiring an experienced West Palm Beach criminal defense attorney to hold the state accountable is important in any criminal case.