Legal Question in Criminal Law in Georgia

my boyfriend was assaulted 5 weeks ago at a chicken fight he went to with some friends, after a fuss the assailant knew my boyfriend had a knive and told him to throw it down and my friend did and the assailant picked it up and then sucker punched him in the face several times until he was unconsious and then pulled him out of a truck a hour later and beat him more while he was going in and out of consciouness. he was beat so bad that he had to have his face reconstructed, and had to wait 5 days for all the swelling to go down before he could have the surgery. the assailant, his son and 3 others brought him home and dumped him out in the yard. he called the law and they called him a ambulance, they done a report for why they were called on a 911 call and said they had no jurisdiction cause this happened in another county, but wrote in the report that he was drinking which was true but he was not drunk and they said that the other witnesses and the assailant said that he pulled a knive on the assailant which is not true. the gilmer county sheriff's dept did not come down here for over a week and when they did they went by what the report said and said they would not prosecute this. said it was self defense. my boyfriend has offered to take a polygraph and even pay for it and we want all the witnesses to be questioned seperately cause we know then they will change their stories and the truth would come out. i hired a p. i and he got one of the witnesses on tape saying that it was not self defense and that ernie did not threaten the assailant with a knive and lots of other things also. but at the same time he is trying to straddle the fence and protect the assailant to because he is scared of him. ellijah is a small town and more than likely does not want the land owner of the place where the chicken fight happened to be liable for this. small towns up here have a habit of doing this and also the truck he was pulled out of and beaten is the same one he rode up there in and they would be liable in a civil suit also. i have tried talking to the sheriff and the da in gilmer county and they refuse to talk. last week i took out a half page ad in their local paper and published a picture of ernie after his surgery and had over 200 calls wanting justice. how do i get it? if you complain to their internal affairs that is just another one of them and they want do anything. how can you get by with beating someone so severe that they require reconstructive surgery and get away with it. this guy who done it is a 3 time convicted felon and this is just not right and i want justice.


Asked on 6/21/11, 8:11 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys

Phillip M. Cook Cook Legal Services, LLC

First of all, I don't think I have to tell you that your boyfriend made a POOR decision in attending a cock fight in the first place. They are illegal and typically aren't attended by the nicest people. In other words, your boyfriend is not a sympathetic victim, other than the extent of his injuries (which NO ONE deserves).

First, you must file reports with everyone in these two counties, even if they are ignored. You must go through the process, even if you are ignored, otherwise it is impossible to escalate. Once you have filed all the necessary documents, there are two things you can do if the local police and DA will not help you. You can escalate the matter to the Georgia Attorney General's office and push your case there. Here's the webpage:

http://www.georgia.gov/02/ago/home/0,2705,87670814,00.html

You can also contact the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) and report it to them: Here's the webpage:

http://investigative.gbi.georgia.gov/02/gbi/divison/0,2650,116603811,00.html

Finally, you should IMMEDIATELY retain a civil lawyer who can sue these folks for assault, battery, false imprisonment, etc., etc. If you can't get these folks put in jail, you may be able to hit them in the wallet. In a criminal court, the standard for guilt is "beyond a reasonable doubt" -- a tough standard for a prosecutor to prove. In a civil court, however, the standard is only a "preponderance of the evidence", which basically means that the jury must be 50.01% sure that the defendants are guilty to find them guilty (a MUCH lower standard).

You cannot do this without an attorney. If cock fighting is protected in your county, I would strongly recommend finding an attorney in Atlanta (the big city) where that attorney may not be influenced so much by the local politics. With the internet and telephones, there's not reason you can't hire an attorney from outside your county.

Best of luck.*****The above is for informational purposes only and does not create an attorney-client privilege.******

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Answered on 6/22/11, 7:07 am
Scott Riddle Law Office of Scott B. Riddle, LLC

Without excusing what someone else did, if your boyfriend wants to live a lifestyle of carrying knives to a "chicken fight," he can expect to stay in a lot of trouble and have things like this happen. When the other party claims self defense, the police are going to find it very believable -- after all, people don't go to chicken fights with weapons because they want to stay out of trouble. If you choose to have a boyfriend who lives this kind of lifestyle, you can expect it will often involve you. For people like that, hospitals and jail are going to be common. This is just the hard truth of this lifestyle.

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Answered on 6/24/11, 6:40 am


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