Long Beach, Felony Domestic Violence Arrest, No File

Our client, age 22, shared a residence with the mother of his six-month old daughter. He was a college graduate and the manager of a local chain restaurant. He was educated and upwardly mobile. His parents were very proud of him.

Brief Synopsis: Our client decides to break up with his girlfriend and as he is moving out of the apartment, his girlfriend stages a fight and calls the police, pretending that he attacked her and tried to strangle her. The client, however, recorded the incident on video on his phone. The girlfriend then recanted her story and signed a declaration describing her true role in events. Greg gives this declaration to the detective, who decides to recommend no prosecution and the case is not filed.

As is common with parents of an infant, our client and his girlfriend had very little sleep and were tasked with changing dirty diapers, feeding the little one and paying for medical expenses they did not expect.

The couple argued quite often and finally, our client decided to leave his girlfriend and the baby.

One day, our client packed up his belongings and began moving them into his car to leave. The girlfriend came home and saw what was happening. She decided to stage a fight to have him arrested for domestic violence. She had been told this would help her get more in child custody payments, too.

So, she parked her car and ran at him, seeking to scratch him and provoke him to defend himself. Our client did defend himself by reaching for his girlfriend’s neck, which apparently had red marks on it when police came to the location.

Our client, however, expected this situation. He used his cell phone to record his girlfriend coming at him and it showed no marks or bruises to her neck after he pushed her away.

The police refused to consider this video and required him to post a bond for $50,000, the statutory level for felony domestic violence.
Long Beach Police Station

The client then retained Greg Hill & Associates and Greg immediately wrote the letter, requesting that the detective look over the video more closely.

The girlfriend then contacted Greg Hill & Associates, asking what she could do to “make the case go away” and admitting that she started the fight. She further admitted that our client only acted in self-defense.

Greg advised the girlfriend to retain her own attorney to speak with me directly, rather than her, but she explained that she did not want to spend the money.

Long Beach Courthouse

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