Five Domestic-Violence Charges Dismissed After Defense Exposes Retaliatory Allegations

Our client, an immigrant with no prior criminal record, received notice that his former wife was seeking five criminal charges against him for alleged acts of domestic violence. The allegations involved events supposedly occurring more than a year earlier, yet none had been reported when they allegedly happened.

The timing was not coincidental. The complainant first presented the accusations immediately before she was due in court on her own criminal matter arising from her conduct toward our client.

Our investigation revealed a very different history from the one portrayed in the complaint application. When police had previously responded to the parties’ home and evaluated the situation in real time, they identified the complainant – not our client – as the aggressor. She was arrested and prosecuted, while our client obtained an abuse-prevention order against her.

The evidence also exposed a broader pattern of coercive control. The complainant had repeatedly used our client’s vulnerable immigration status as leverage, threatening that no one would believe him and attempting to manipulate court proceedings to regain control over him.

At the clerk-magistrate’s hearing, we examined each allegation separately. We exposed the extraordinary reporting delay, the lack of witnesses, the absence of contemporaneous evidence, the contradictions within the complainant’s account, and the strategic timing of the accusations. We demonstrated that the complaint was not a credible report of past abuse, but a recently concocted story aimed at influencing her own pending case and retaliating against our client.

After our presentation, the Court was convinced that our client was no criminal; he was the victim. Each and every charge was dismissed.

Preventing the criminal complaint from issuing was critical. Our client had a pending immigration application (VAWA) based on the abuse and coercive control he had experienced during the marriage. A pending domestic-violence prosecution could have caused severe immigration consequences, placed his application in jeopardy, and exposed him to potentially life-altering consequences despite the absence of credible evidence.

By presenting the complete history rather than allowing the allegations to be considered in isolation, we prevented the misuse of the criminal process and protected both our client’s record and his ability to pursue lawful immigration relief.