Road-rage assault charge: key statement excluded, acquitted

Background

Riding a motorcycle, our client got into a dispute with a car driver over a horn, and the two later argued in a park. Our client was charged with hitting the driver. Our client maintained that it was the driver who had struck our client, injuring our client's teeth.

The issue

Whether the absent driver's police statement could be admitted as made 'under particularly reliable circumstances,' and whether the remaining evidence proved an assault.

Our approach

Our client argued that the driver's statement was not made under particularly reliable circumstances and was therefore inadmissible. From immediately after the incident, our client consistently said they had only been hit.

The court's reasoning

The court noted that, although the two accounts conflicted, no face-to-face confrontation had been conducted, the driver's companion who witnessed it refused to give a statement, and the cut on the driver's hand that the driver attributed to being hit looked instead like it came from our client's teeth when the driver struck our client. Finding that the driver had played down facts unfavorable to the driver, the court held the driver's statement unreliable and excluded it. The remaining photographs did not prove an assault.

Outcome

The court acquitted our client and ordered the gist of the acquittal to be made public.

What this case means

Statements not tested by cross-examination in court must meet strict requirements to be admitted. Challenging admissibility alone can change the outcome.

This is the outcome of an individual case and does not guarantee the same result in similar matters. Some facts have been generalized to protect the parties involved.