A 45-year-old mother was accused of assaulting another woman at their sons’ basketball game more than 1 ½ years ago. Attorney Tiffany DeBruin was retained mid-way through the case after a jury had been selected in the 55th District Court. A 14-year-old boy was complaining that the client had hit him during an altercation after the basketball game. The police report also noted that there was a third-party witness saying she observed that altercation where the client allegedly struck the boy.
After the client hired Attorney DeBruin, there was additional investigation. They visited the scene again and found an independent third-party witness more than 1 ½ years later saying that he was a referee at the game and he had been right beside the parties during the verbal altercation but had not observed the client hit the child. Additionally, after Attorney DeBruin contacted the original neutral witness noted in the police report, her current statement did not match up with what was memorialized in the police report.
Attorney DeBruin contacted the prosecutor and brought these issues to her attention. The prosecutor dismissed the charge and Attorney DeBruin’s client was able to move on with her life without risk of a conviction for something she was falsely accused of doing.
The outcome of an individual case depends on a variety of factors unique to that case. Case results do not guarantee or predict a similar result in any similar or future case.