.As reported by Jaqueline Tempera in the November 2, 2015 edition of the Providence Journal, a Providence man has been charged with felony assault, assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest. The man is a former restaurant owner who is accused of owning money to some of his former employees. The employees can to the man’s house to protest. He hit one of the workers in the stomach with a bat. He was later arrested by police.
Pursuant to Rhode Island General Laws 11-5-2, felony assault is defined as every person who shall make an assault or battery, or both, with a dangerous weapon, or with acid or other dangerous substance, or by fire, or an assault or battery which results in serious bodily injury.
(b) Where the provisions of "The Domestic Violence Prevention Act", chapter 29 of title 12, are applicable, the penalties for violation of this section shall also include the penalties as provided in § 12-29-5.
(c) "Serious bodily injury" means physical injury that:
(1) Creates a substantial risk of death;
(2) Causes protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily part, member or organ; or
(3) Causes serious permanent disfigurement or circumcises, excises or infibulates
the whole or any part of the labia majora or labia minora or clitoris
of a person.
In this case, the man is accused of assaulting with a dangerous weapon,
a baseball bat. It does not appear that the woman was seriously injured.
The penalties if convicted of felony assault include imprisonment for
not more than twenty (20) years and a possible no-contact order with the victim.
Assaulting a police officer, defined in R.I.G.L. 11-5-5, includes any person who shall make an assault or battery, or both, by knowingly and willfully either (1) striking, or (2) spraying with a noxious chemical, commonly used as a personal defense weapon, including Mace and an oleoresin capsicum product or like products, a uniformed member of the state police or metropolitan park police, environmental police officer, state properties patrol officer, probation and parole officers, state government case worker or investigator, judge of the supreme, superior, family, district court, traffic tribunal or municipal court, deputy sheriff, city or town police officer or firefighter, member of the capitol police, member of campus security force of state colleges and universities, member of the Rhode Island airport police department, member of the Rhode Island fugitive task force, Rhode Island public transit authority bus driver, or on-duty plainclothes member of the town, city, or state police force, investigator of the department of the attorney general appointed pursuant to § 42-9-8.1, or member of the railroad police after proper identification is displayed, or uniformed dog officer, or out-of-state police officer called into Rhode Island under a cooperative agreement to provide mutual aid at the request of the state of Rhode Island pursuant to chapter 37 of title 42, or assistant attorney general or special assistant attorney general, or employees of the department of environmental management responsible for administrative inspections or any constable authorized by chapter 45-16 of the Rhode Island general law causing bodily injury while the officer or official is engaged in the performance of his or her duty.
This is also a felony charge and punishable by imprisonment not exceeding three (3) years, or fined not exceeding fifteen hundred dollars ($1,500), or both.
If you or a family member has been charged with felony assault, simple assault, or other violent crimes, please contact Attorney Robert H. Humphrey, Esq., at 401-816-5862 or e-mail him at rhh@rhumphreylaw.com