Posted on 05/16/2005 12:24:43 PM PDT by La Enchiladita
Baldwin Park police said they were opening an investigation to determine who struck a 66-year-old woman with a plastic water bottle during a sidewalk protest Saturday, sending her to the hospital with "cranial trauma."
"We're investigating this as an assault with a deadly weapon," Sgt. Greg Keef said.
Police said the victim, Laura Dalton of Murrieta, was struck during a shouting match between members of Save Our State, an anti-illegal immigration group, and their opponents.
Save Our State organized the protest against what they viewed as divisive and inflammatory wording on a city sculpture.
Dalton was initially observed in the intensive care unit at Queen of the Valley Hospital in West Covina but was released Sunday, said a friend and fellow protester, Robin Hvidson.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Any lawyer worth his salt would get the deadly weapon part thrown out. Go for the assault charge and make it stick.
You are correct. It is only because of the fact it hit her in the head that it is deemed as such. Had the bottle hit this poor woman in the stomach, it would have been assault with a dangerous instrument.
Not much info in the article. I went to high school in Baldwin Park in the sixties. My parents moved there because they thought it would be a nice place to raise a family. The last class reunion I heard about wasn't even held in Baldwin Park but in a defferent town. When I lived there it was about 25% latino ("Chicano" in those days) and 75% anglo. Of couse that has changed.
Last time I was there, in 1991, I met some old friends from HS days and we drove by the old school. My friends refused to even stop the car in Baldwin Park, something I thought a bit extreme until I heard the shots ring out. I had thought it would be fun to get a burger at the In-N-Out across the street from the school but they all said, almost in unison, "Are you crazy?". When we drove past Sierra Vista High School I was shocked to see the high wire fence surrounding the campus that, in my day, had been completely open.
Absolutely not...especially here in CT.
If I swing a baseball bat at your knee, it is assault with a dangerous intrument. I now swing that very same bat at your head, it is assault with a deadly weapon.
I disagree. Most State statutes define "deadly weapon" very broadly as any object used in a manner which causes or could cause serious bodily injury or extreme pain. If you look across the country there is State Supreme Court case law upholding pencils, boots and car keys as deadly weapons.
I understand. I grew up in this area and attended high school in Los Angeles in the '60s (coincidentally! LOL). Baldwin Park was just another distant suburb that we visited if we knew someone there. I always got it mixed up with Buena Park, the home of Knott's Berry Farm, which has suffered pretty much the same fate as Baldwin.
This very short article was buried in today's L.A. Times. Your friends saved you from some very dangerous nostalgia!
When plastic water bottles are outlawed . . . etc.
I'll give up my plastic water bottle . . . etc.
I've successfuly prosecuted when the dangerous weapon was a pillow.
The pot calling the kettle .... racist!
My thinking is that they would have to prove some kind of intent. Assault would be more likely to get a conviction, and less likely to be dumped than the deadly weapon charge. True? t could be argued (couldn't it?) that the intent wasn't to get the person in the head, just a poor throw.
All states are different. In MN, if you do an act with the intent of causing fear in another of immediate bodily harm,
you're guilty of assault. If you do it with an any devise that in the manner it is used is likely to produce great bodily harm, you're guilty of assault with a dangerous weapon.
I'm so sure Mayor Villaraigoso would pursue the illegal perps to the full extent of the law.
A few years ago Brown Berets threw frozen cans of soda at a similar rally, injuring a number of elderly people. The police stood by and did nothing, on orders from the mayor and city council.
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