JH was charged with F2 aggravated assault, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person, his sister, the complaining witness. He allegedly got into an increasingly tense verbal argument with her while staying at their parents’ house. Tensions continued to rise and JH supposedly started pounding the wall and screaming. His sister came out of another room to continue their dispute. The situation quickly became violent. JH’s sister claimed that JH, who was around 300 pounds, punched her in the face, smashed her head and dragged her down the stairs by the hair. When police finally arrived JH immediately ran out the front door and had to be chased down by officers. After the Commonwealth rested Mr. Shaffer was able to take advantage of a procedural error and had his client acquitted of the felony charge through a motion for judgement of acquittal. On defense Mr. Shaffer called the father to the stand. Through direct testimony he was able to elicit that the complaining witness had an order issued against her to stay away from the house and that she was the aggressor in the matter despite the large difference in size. Even though JH ran away from the police, Mr. Shaffer’s argument convinced the judge of his client’s innocence and he was found NOT GUILTY of all charges.
