Not Guilty Verdict — Battery

Our client owned a lawn business and was mowing yards in northern St. Lucie County.  A man who had a prior conflict with our client pulled up in his driveway which was next door to the location of our clients lawn equipment.  The lawn equipment was on a trailer, legally parked in the road, but the so called "victim" in this case believed it to be blocking his right of way.  After words were exchanged the "victim"  took three steps towards our client before our client lawfully defended himself by grabbing the man around the neck and slinging him to the ground.  All of this was caught on a "Ring" doorbell video.  For whatever reason, the St. Lucie County deputies and the State Attorney's Office saw our client as the aggressor.  So we took the case to trial and persuasively argued to a jury that a grown man has the right to defend himself when another grown man takes three aggressive steps towards him. The jury came back in nine minutes with a verdict of NOT GUILTY.