ENGLEWOOD, Fla. (November 18, 2019) — 2019 has not been a good year for one 35-year-old woman from Englewood, Florida. Earlier in 2019, deputies arrested her for child endangerment after leaving her young children in her car while she went into a barroom for at least 30 minutes and had two alcoholic beverages. Now, the woman faces battery charges after an alleged physical altercation in Rotonda West, located in Charlotte County. Sheriff’s deputies charged the woman with battery following a report made by the complainant, according to ABC 7 WWSB. Reports also indicate that the deputies charged the woman with a probation violation charge. She was on probation for the March 2019 incident alleging child endangerment.
According to the report from ABC 7 WWSB, the complaint told deputies that his assailant tried to take the television remote control while he was watching a professional football game. The complainant refused to change the channel, and she walked into the kitchen. The victim also stepped into the kitchen and was talking to at least one other person when the assailant came up from behind the man, grabbed him by his head, and pulled him down the floor. The victim said he struck his head on a shelf and then hit the floor. The man reportedly lost consciousness at that point.
Witnesses say that the man went to lie down after regaining consciousness. However, the man had difficulty waking up about twenty minutes later. One witness called 911, fearing that the man was severely hurt from the attack. He spent two days in the hospital recuperating from the attack.
The complainant called for deputies to report that alleged incident after receiving his release from the hospital. He told deputies that the woman bit him, kicked him in the testicles, punched, and bit him. The man said he knew there would be trouble because of the woman’s alcohol consumption. The two witnesses told deputies a similar story.
Deputies placed the 35-year-old under arrest later on November 13. The woman admitted to her mother that she bit the victim.
Simple Battery Charges in Florida
Simple battery in Florida is a misdemeanor. Under Florida statutes §784.03, battery is committed when either a person causes intentional harm to another person, or deliberate strikes or touches another person without his or her consent. Under Florida law, intentional battery has no requirement that the person sustains an injury to be a crime.
The maximum jail sentence for battery is a one year committed sentence to the county jail, with a maximum of one year of probation, and a $1,000.00 fine.
Defenses to battery depend on the facts of the underlying case. A claim of self-defense might be an option if the defendant reasonably believed he or she was objectively threatened with imminent bodily harm. Self-defense may be extended to another person, which is sometimes called defense of another.
Consent might be an affirmative defense to battery. However, its application is usually limited to sporting events in which contact occurs. Insufficient intent to commit battery is also a defense. Sometimes the best defense is not a true defense at all but is closely akin to a consent defense. Mutual combat is a fight in which two or more people willingly engage, and although not a technical defense under Florida law, can be successful in the right circumstances.