I have had been emailing DMV regarding my issue on the road test, it was thoroughly thoughtful given my situation. However, my last email was rather very harsh and mean, and DMV literally took it as a threat. So they had a cop arrested me, and jailed overnight. my public defender looked through my emails and told the judge, "not guilty your honor" although I didn't decide whether I should plead guilty or not guilty. Keep this in mind, it's my first time in court - I have a clean record (paper shows misdemeanor on aggravated assault via email). The prosecutor somewhat agreed but wanted to issue OOP (Order of Protection/ Restraint Order). The judge released me without any bail needed. I don't have any intention talking with this particular DMV office. My pubic defender said there's no fine or imprisonment. But will issue OOP/RO against me. I am getting confused because paper said: Order of Protection & Pending. I will have to show up to pre-trail soon where the prosecutor will offer if any plea offer and receive any additional paper work. So.. any ideas, or similar experience? Constructive and clean comment please!
It's a felony in most states to send threatening letters (even though that was not your intent) over the internet, especially to a state agency. not sure of your states laws, so i;m not even going to guess as to what may happen at pre-trial.
Truer words can't be said. I blame it on the pussification of America. You have to be careful about what you say to people these days because they tend to be sue happy about everything. Hurt their feelings and you'll end up getting sued for verbal assault and having to pay them money for emotional damages.
Why? Words, when used aggressively, can put the fear of God in to a victim. If the person sending intends their victim to be terrified, then why shouldn't that be a criminal matter? If the OP sent a threatening email then he will have to face the consequences. What worries me most is that the OPs lawyer entered his plea without taking instructions first, that is surely a criminal offence in itself!
It's an email...It's one thing to actively threaten someone's life through an email, but nothing less should be considered anything criminal.
Sure, but as we all know on this and other forums, its easy to misinterpret text on a screen. Unless of course its blatantly threating like: im going to rub acidic pigeon poop on your chromed up veespa... Also, right up until my early teens i thought that everyone who i came across in the street that wore a patch and some leathers/rugged clothes was just another gangster, which i found to be rather intimidating and threatning. Turns out, you can be a non-violent person and a legitimate member of a harmless motorcycle club and not be a gangster. I misinterpreted someone that i've never spoken to and know nothing about, but that dosnt make my fear of such, a legitimate fear. Misinterpretation should have no place in courts, you either did the deed or you didnt. everything else in-between is just some muppet looking for attention imo. And besides, Im sure companies like the dmv make more money from taking people to court than from the actual services they provide.
Perhaps you should have heeded your own advice. Frankly, none of us know what you actually put in your email. So it's nearly impossible, IMO anyway, to judge or provide anything constructive beyond the obvious of 'learn from your mistakes'.
I'm one of those people that think that people should be just as accountable for things they do on the internet as in the real world so I can't really sympathize for you there. But like Hemi said, we really don't know what you said so we really can't say one way or the other. It's very possible that they severely overreacted, but there's also the chance that what you said had some malice to it, regardless of whether you were just letting off steam or not. I understand that you probably can't say exactly what you said as it's part of an ongoing case so I won't ask what you said. Personally, a rule I follow by is, if what I say would get my ass kicked in a bar (or thrown in jail) then I won't say it on the internet either. With all that being said, I really hope things work out for you. You seem to be a really nice guy on the forums so I wish you the best of luck. I'm sure the judge will see that you're a decent person as well who just used the wrong choice of words in a moment of frustration.
I see the nanny state system is working as intended we dont stand our own ground we just get each other tooken care of by the over zealous law. Overall if u look at someone wrong these days u can get in trouble with the law What can u do i would say get in contact with a lawyer that can guide u through public defendants in some cases will sell u off its not in theyre best interest to help u they are just doing a job... but then lawyers just want ur cash so i dunno
So you're suggesting the DMV should have done what? Personally, as I don't know the content of his email, I'd not be so quick to blame a 'nanny state'.
It's one thing to say something brash in the heat of the moment. It's another to actually type out an emails pissed off and click send, that's pure stupidity on the OP.
aggravated assault n. the crime of physically attacking another person which results in serious bodily harm and/or is made with a deadly or dangerous weapon such as a gun, knife, sword, ax or blunt instrument. <--- this is the part that is somehow lost to me. you know aggravated assault via email, how does that work.
Over here in the UK, you'd be doing hard time by now, because we're even more pussified than an earlier poster claimed that Americans are.