When a person is charged with a crime, they often assume that they will be facing serious consequences. However, with the right criminal defense, penalties can be lessened, and the charges can even be dismissed completely. One Virginia man is living proof.
The alleged incident occurred when a video surfaced of the man yelling insults at the cab driver, who was Muslim, shortly after the bombings at the Boston Marathon. The driver recorded this after he told the man that he was not allowed to drink a beer while in the cab. It was at this point that the man became angry and compared the driver to the Boston Marathon bombers. The driver also claimed that the man assaulted him off camera, leaving him with a concussion and a broken jaw. Misdemeanor assault charges were filed against the man.
Nonetheless, prosecutors poked holes in the cab driver’s story and found a few discrepancies. They found that the timing of the driver’s call to 911 made it impossible for the assault to have occurred when he said it did.
The driver says that the prosecutors dropped the charges without looking over the timeline, and that the assault was not recorded because he turned off the video camera to make the 911 call. He may be able to file a civil lawsuit, and he may also seek a federal hate crime charge. For now though, the man who’s life could have been turned upside down by assault charges, can now move forward and live normally.
Source: The Washington Post, “Prosecutors drop charges against Virginia man accused of assaulting Muslim cab driver,” Nov. 14, 2013