LeClair wins two trials for one client

Attorney Mitch LeClair won two trials in August for the same client.

 

In one case, his client was charged with assaulting her mother and sister. In the other case, she was accused of assaulting her husband and damaging his property. In both cases, the juries reached the same conclusion: not guilty.

 

 

In the first case, LeClair’s client was charged with two counts of assault in the fourth degree, gross misdemeanors punishable by up to one year in jail. The alleged victims were her mother and sister. The client was accused of hitting them at her mother’s house, where family members were going through her late father’s belongings shortly after his funeral.

 

In the second case, LeClair's client was charged with assault in the fourth degree and malicious mischief in the third degree for allegedly striking her husband and breaking his phone case. During a pre-trial interview, the client’s husband said when his wife hit him, it was to get him away from her, because he was crowding her space during an argument. He also said she took his phone because she believed he was recording the argument. He told the Vancouver assistant city attorney that he wanted the charges dismissed, but the prosecutor refused and took the case to trial. He even had the couple’s children miss a day of school so he could have them testify about what they witnessed.

 

At trial, the alleged victim said the argument over household finances did become heated.  But he also said the client never assaulted him, nor did she try to break his phone case.

 

 

Jurors deliberated for about one hour and 45 minutes before returning the not-guilty verdicts.