Our Partner, John LoTurco, obtained an acquittal at the Nassau County District Court in October, 2024 on behalf of a Client who was charged with Assault in the 3rd Degree. The incident occurred at a professional sporting event at the UBS Arena. LoTurco presented a justification defense as the 29 year old Client acted in self-defense to avert being struck by the complainant first. In specific, our Client entered the men’s bathroom at the arena through the exit way to avoid the lengthy line, and the complainant and self-appointed bathroom monitor, immediately began to scold the defendant by using a series of profanities and calling him a variety of derogatory names.
Our Client attempted to avoid the confrontation by going to the furthest urinal in the bathroom to create distance from the complainant. The 50 year old complainant was physically imposing as he was 6’4, 230lbs and was visibly intoxicated and irate. After our Client finished at the urinal, he was physically confronted by the complainant who stood behind him and continued to yell in our Client’s face. The 6’2, 210lb athletically built Client warned the complainant to step back as he felt trapped by the complainant in the corner of the men’s room. The complainant then chest bumped our Client, which resulted in our Client punching the complainant one time in the eye region causing the complainant to immediately lose consciousness and fall to the ground which resulted in a fractured orbital bone.
Although the complainant did not throw a punch, LoTurco argued that our Client acted in self-defense as he was cornered in the bathroom with no escape and was frightened for his physical safety due to the complainant’s threats, imposing size, and his physical contact with the Client. There was no surveillance in the men’s bathroom for privacy purposes, but the prosecution admitted into evidence a series of photographs of the bathroom which LoTurco was able to utilize to his advantage to demonstrate where the incident occurred. The prosecution called a supposedly disinterested bystander who testified that our Client was the initial aggressor, but LoTurco was able to successfully raise reasonable doubt in the witness’s testimony based upon where the witness testified he was positioned in the bathroom and his inability to accurately view the incident. LoTurco successfully impeached that witness’s credibility by bringing out several inconsistent statements from the witness’s original statement to the police, compared with his trial testimony.
The complainant was also found to be less than credible as he denied planning a lawsuit against our Client if he was convicted as LoTurco brought out police photographs that were taken at a personal injury attorney’s office that were provided to the prosecution to purportedly show the complainant’s serious injuries.
Our Client testified regarding his self-defense assertion, and his mother testified that it was only the two of them at the sporting event together. This allowed LoTurco to successfully argue that our Client was not at the game looking for trouble while attending the sporting event with his mother.
Despite the prosecution’s unwillingness to negotiate a plea disposition, our Client was thankfully found “not guilty” after trial, and the complainant has not filed a lawsuit against our Client.
