Disabled person needing advice here.

Hope I can do this...

Hi Peeps.

Will try keep this short.

About a year ago, Myself, My pregnant wife, and my son, who is now over 16 were driving into the town.
About halfway through the journey, an idiot infront off me hammered on his brakes (outside lane we were in) because he missed his turnoff.
I had to quickly look behind me in my mirror, seen the nearest car was about 100 yards behind, in the inside lane, and I put the foot down, to overtake the idiot I about crashed into.

I am now in the inside lane. I had to take my foot of the exceleretor to slow down, and the car in the inside lane hit the back of mine.
My car stalled. I got out of the car, and this is the bit I need advice on. I am on lifetime disabilty for back and leg problems. I also suffer from mental health issues.

I got out of the car, to see any damage etc. The passenger of the car got out and started to run round the front of my car, while my son and pregnant wife were in the car, and he was shouting words (i wont use exact words) to state he was going to hit me etc.
At this point, I turned round to hear the driver giving me the same verbals. Basically, I had 2 young lads threatening me.
At this stage, I kicked the car door, the lad was about to open it, and he hurt a finger. The passenger at this point came behind me and struck me on the head. one thing led to another, a few blows were exchanged, by all 3 off us. Mainly them 2 hitting me. As I tried to walk away the passenger hit me hard with the side bumber. I got in my car, and drove to the police station.
Within 10 minutes. I had been told I was charged with Assault and Vandalism.

INCREDIBLE !!!

As things stand now. My wife is pregnant again, and my beutifull daughter is now 1 year old.
My disability and dependence on opiates and tranqualisers is getting worse. And the mental stress I am now under is really ruining my life.
I cant believe the police did this. In the charge sheet, the police put my car registration number down as being on both cars. There was no mention of my pregnant wife and 15 year old son being in the car. No mention I went right to the police station.
I was charged and released in under 30 minutes. I went back to the police station to try and get these 2 lads charged, and was told I couldnt.
I also tried to show the police my injuries, they told me they could get a Dr, but it could take hours (this was in custody) They told me to get out of the police station and go to the Hospital.

After failing to get these 2 lads charged i went to the hospital to get my injuries looked at. All were photographed by my another family member who will be a witness in the trial.

Please can someone explain why I am the bad guy here, and what can I expect if found guilty.
I tried hard to deal with this without getting my young son and pregnant wife involved. Sadly they now have to be witness's.

There are 3 witness's against me. the 2 from the car who hit me, and the person in the car behind them, so said in his statement I did EVERYTHING. even though I have several pictures, and my wife and sons statements to say otherwise. that is it.

I have 3 witness's. My wife and son who were there, and my older son who took the pictures of my injuries before I went to hospital.
This happend over a year ago. It has taken this long as I couldnt get to court until last week due to my disability.

What is the likely outcome, if anyone can hazard a guess.
I have never been charged with assault before, ever.
But my last time in trouble with the police was over 12 years ago, where I recieved a few fines, most being about £200 for stupid car related stuff.

I am not a criminal. I am panicking badly here, as is my wife, as are my 2 sons.
I am not eating or sleeping.

Can someone please put my mind at ease.
This is a Scottish law thing.
I am charged with common assault

**
Point I am also trying to make here is, the Police, in this case, done me and my young family no good at all.
They pre-judged and were lazy.

I am angry and scared, as is my wife and kids
All I did was protect myself and my family.
I think everyone deserves this right !!

[edit on 30/5/2010 by shauny]

I feel very bad about what happened to you and your family. The only thing I can suggest is a really good lawyer! I wish you peace, love and wellness.

reply to post by crazydaisy


Thank you so much..

I have a lawyer, she has told me I wont get any jail time.
But being already disabled and on medication that fruks with your mind, I have gotten a little panicky about this.

I am just wondering, what I can expect.
Is there a chance, with the PF (Crown) now having my 3 statments from my family and Dr's letters, Hospital letters and pictures of my injuries...can the PF (state prosacuter in america I think), can he say, ok, now I have more information, should I now drop this.

its a total scam

[edit on 30/5/2010 by shauny]

Your problem is you do not speak the language. You do not speak the language of the law.

1. Drive slower. Expect everybody to be an idiot. Then you will never have an accident.

2. Do not be angry. Do not kick car doors. Do not give other people a reason to be angry at you.

3. Get a really good lawyer.

reply to post by shauny


Well, I dont think it will put your mind at ease, but as far as the accident is concerned you are at least partially at fault.

You are supposed to be following "idiots" at a distance and speed at which you yourself can safely brake if they slam on their brakes. Dodging into the other lane makes you at least partially at fault. (as the car in that lane may have been closer than it appeared in your mirror)

Then you physically assaulted someone who was only verbally assaulting you, by kicking their door and smashing their finger. Not to mention the property damage, after you had already caused an accident with your bad driving.

I hate to say it, but it seems as if you are in exactly the position you should be at this point.

reply to post by avatar01


Thanks.

To be fair, the anger was coming at me LLOONNNG before i even got angry.
There was no police tests done on the scene, i was doing 30mph and the person in front just stopped, I had to swerve and the rest, well its there to read.

You almost come across as the police here.

I am not a bad person, I am a football manager, who (if you know soccer at adults level) has been in heated arguments week in week out for years, and never lifted my hands in my life.

Thanks for the comments however

reply to post by Illusionsaregrander


Even with a pregnant woman, 8 months pregnant ?
I think a case of self defence was my thinking to be fair.
As I said above I am not a violent man. never have been.

Also, both the driver and the passenger in the other car are KNOWN criminals who have been in jail, for assault in the past.

I dont think I deserve to be where I am.
But maybe I didnt post correctly, or you read wrong.

Thanks for the comment however.

reply to post by shauny


You should try and not to worry about it too much, you will only upset yourself more by doing so.

I think that there is a good chance, considering your disability, injuries and a lack of previous assault charges against you that the judge will more than likely just let you off with a warning and nothing more. Also if your solicitor has letters from your psychiatrist and doctor stating how this is affecting you and stating your current mental state over the matter then that could really help. Plus you also have proof that you went straight to police about it.

You could also contact your local political representative and get him to state his opinion on the matter in writing.

I think you'll be okay.

reply to post by shauny


Calm down shauny, I can feel your angst, relax it is good you are letting off steam by addressing it on the forum, I hope talking about it helps with your anxiety.

My son was in an incident where he was wrongfully accused, he was in a car someone was carrying pot and they all got found guilty.

The justice system can be unfair,

reply to post by shauny


Unfortunately, having a pregnant woman in the car, or even your disabilities have no bearing on what happened. They may be facts, and they may matter to you, or make you feel your actions were justified, but to an outsider, or the law, they are unrelated to the event. You are at least partially at fault for the car hitting you, and you started the physical end of the altercation first. That is what the law is looking at.

Even criminals can be victimized, so the fact that the guy you assaulted was a thug also has no legal bearing. As you told it, you struck first, and so them hitting you can be explained away as self defense.

reply to post by Lady_Tuatha


A voice of reason, that answered my simple question, without judging me.

THANK YOU....xxx

To be fair, you are correct.

Further to this.
My son nearly died of a siezure before this, weeks before.
My wife miscarried 2 times before this.
My family had a member of the family murdered.
I am severely disabled and take medication that would kill a giraff.
There is more I could add. But my head was up my backside.
I still maintain I got out the car to check for damage, and was met by anger and real threats.

Thanks again. You have calmed me a wee bit.

And yeah, I drove off, in fear, right to a police station.

S

[edit on 30/5/2010 by shauny]

Originally posted by Illusionsaregrander
reply to post by shauny

 

Unfortunately, having a pregnant woman in the car, or even your disabilities have no bearing on what happened. They may be facts, and they may matter to you, or make you feel your actions were justified, but to an outsider, or the law, they are unrelated to the event. You are at least partially at fault for the car hitting you, and you started the physical end of the altercation first. That is what the law is looking at.

Even criminals can be victimized, so the fact that the guy you assaulted was a thug also has no legal bearing. As you told it, you struck first, and so them hitting you can be explained away as self defense.

Here and as far as im aware in England,Scotland and Wales also, judges do and can take sympathetic views on certain cases and people, and this happens quite often. Now if shauny states that he kicked the cardoor closed ( and unintentionally on the guys finger) as a reaction purely out of fear for his safety as he was afraid what the guy could do to him and his family, he was being verbally threatened and abused by these young guys, already shaken up himself by what just happened, and then had to endure a fistycuffs with the two fellas.

With a psychiatrist report, with a doctors report, with picture evidence, in receipt of disability living allowance, with no previous violent behavior, with a few good charactor references, and with the two guys being previous offenders.

Theres no chance a judge over here would send seany down for this, if they did i would be very very surprised.

I bet he gets away with nothing more than a warning.

Keep us updated shauny

reply to post by Lady_Tuatha


Thank you. I will

xx

reply to post by shauny


See this thread:

Motivation : No Arms, No Legs, Yet Still An Inspiration : What's Your Excuse?



ETA: I wish all the best for you none the less and hope everything ends up in your favor.

[edit on 5/30/2010 by UberL33t]

Sometimes the universe has to get your attention by smacking you in the face Shauny.

I wouldn't worry about it.

You give your fears more probability of occuring by giving them thought.

check out my signature, .... take it easy baby.

Everything is in it's right place, you just don't know it yet.

reply to post by IntastellaBurst


So.
A a matrix type. em, think positive thing you say ?

reply to post by Lady_Tuatha


Individual judges can and do make concessions out of sympathy for a sad story. Just going off the facts of the incident, however, he is indeed guilty of what he is charged with. He caused the accident, and most people in fear do not aggressively go around kicking cars with two young thugs in it. A typical "fear" reaction would have been to stay in the car with the windows up.

Sympathy and justice are not the same thing. I can feel sorry for shauny, as a human being, but were I the judge, he would be held responsible for his actions. The facts related to the case do not support his getting away with it. The other things he is bringing to the table, including his second list of hardships, are irrelevant to the actual occurrence.

Those things would matter more, in my opinion, at the sentencing phase, not the part where actual culpability were determined. It would be reasonable to give a lighter sentence to someone out of sympathy than to exonerate them altogether.


You may be right, however, and he may get off without charges. It really all depends on what sort of judge he gets.

reply to post by Illusionsaregrander


yip, yip, yip
I undertstand all that.

The only real ANGER I have here is with the police lazyness.
They didnt ask me, or my wife, or my son for our version of events.
They just charged me and let me go to the hospital on my own.
Only 3 days ago did my lawyer give the crown the evidence of my family, the Dr's/Hospital letters stating I was in a bad way after my beating, and the pictures to prove it.

I may not be an angel here, I get that.
I just dont understand why the police never took a statement, on the day, from my family. we are decent folks.

My lawyer said to me a year ago, when it happened, if the police had stated I Had walked into the police station after it happened, and also stated there was a pregnant woman in the car, she said I would have got a lette of warning at the least and maybe a spot fine/fixed fine.

Oddly enough, his insuranc company never contacted my insurance company regarding the damage caused by the crash.
Reason ? he was doing about 50MPH in the inside lane.

I got out the car to check for damage to my new car.
When I got out, and was standing in the middle of the cars, it was then (we are talking seconds here) the lads lauched at me with threats of violence.

Thanks again for your comments.
I just am so angry at the police here.
lazy.

[edit on 30/5/2010 by shauny]

You should not be swerving into other lanes. If the car infront of you stops, you should stop too. If you hit them when trying to stop, it is their fault. Also. You should not go around kicking car doors in. Being disabled does not give you a special right to do what you want. I also can't understand why you're having kids if you've got physical and mental health issues. Bad show all around.

Originally posted by SteveR
You should not be swerving into other lanes. If the car infront of you stops, you should stop too. If you hit them when trying to stop, it is their fault. Also. You should not go around kicking car doors in. Being disabled does not give you a special right to do what you want. I also can't understand why you're having kids if you've got physical and mental health issues. Bad show all around.

So
Disabled people should not have a right to live a normal life ?
is this what you are telling me here ? I am sorry, but you are throwing at me, what I have to deal with day in, day out. Discrimination against disabled people. I have a disabled parking badge. and because I have 2 legs and 2 arms, I get funny looks.
Try being disabled for 1 day. Its not just physical, its mental also.
Very bad post. you bad !!
I will go and lay in bed till I die and just give into the bad hand I was given in life.


If I had tried to stop, there was a risk my car would have hit the back of the car that broke suddenly. With a pregnant woman in the car, I was driving as carefull as I could.





[edit on 30/5/2010 by shauny]