Assault is defined as an attempt to bring harm someone else in a reckless or purposeful way. It may involve negligent use of a deadly weapon, such as accidentally discharging a firearm and hitting someone, producing a non-lethal injury. It may also involve physically menacing a person and creating the impression that they are in imminent danger of bodily harm.
Assault always has a physical component to it, though it does not require actual physical contact. Threatening words alone do not prompt this charge, but threatening words combined with actions often can. This may include holding a weapon in a threatening way, getting close to the someone menacingly or making violent gestures. This is the act component of an assault and it is a necessary component to an assault charge. Secondly, there is an intent component. Those guilty of an assault charge have led the defendant to a reasonable view that they are in danger and this constitutes intent.
Note that this intent component does not necessarily mean that harm was fully intentional. New Jersey statutes allow for the possibility that assault was the result of criminal negligence or reckless behavior.
Fights which both parties voluntarily engaged in are typically not assault cases and are more likely charged as petty disorderly persons offense, depending on the circumstances.
What is Simple vs Aggravated Assault?
There are two types of assault: Simple Assault and Aggravated Assault. The chief defining feature of aggravated assault is that it can cause or has caused more serious bodily harm or that it is attached to some circumstances that make the offense considered graver.
Charges are upgraded from simple to aggravated depending on the severity of the injury, the presence or lack of a weapon in the commission of the crime, whether the victim has special protections afforded to them under the law and what the circumstances of the alleged assault were. It’s clear that extreme injury of the potential for extreme injury through acts of commission or reckless indifference are aggravated assault. If you were charged with assault in New Jersey, please contact one of our Criminal Defense Attorneys to represent you. If technologies like weapons, laser pointers or even motor vehicles are used to harm or intimidate others, this can be considered aggravated assault. The use of an imitation firearm if used to threaten or intimidate a law enforcement officer also qualifies.
Special protections are afforded to law enforcement officers, paid or volunteer firefighters, emergency medical professionals, school board members, school administrators, teachers, employees of the Division of Child and Protective Services, judges or justices of various courts, public transit employees, Department of Corrections (DOC) employees, contract employees for various utilities and assorted healthcare workers. Any act of simple assault against these populations is upgraded to aggravated assault.
There are a variety of other circumstances which are defined as aggravated assault which are not captured above. If an assault is carried out while fleeing from law enforcement, this is defined as aggravated assault. Causing bodily injury via an intentional explosion or fire is also aggravated assault.
