Not-guilty verdict delivered faster than a pizza

Despite the lack of evidence, this was a case prosecutors deemed worthy of trying a second time. The first attempt ended in a mistrial after the alleged victim said something on the witness stand that a judge had ruled before the trial she couldn’t say.

During the Sept. 16 retrial in Clark County District Court, Kauffman questioned the girlfriend about feeding her baby pizza, to which she responded she could feed her baby whatever she wants.

Her credibility as a competent mother already in question, her credibility as a victim was sufficiently damaged in two respects. First, she changed her story from what she’d told deputies and claimed deputies misquoted her in reports. (Accusing officers of lying rarely works.) Second, she denied ever threatening her boyfriend with getting him sent to jail.

On that point, Kauffman asked her whether she was certain she never told her boyfriend she’d get him sent to jail.  She told the jury she never told him that.

Then Kauffman played the 911 call for jurors, and the girlfriend can be clearly heard yelling, “You’re going to jail!”

In the 911 call, she told the dispatcher that she was upset because her boyfriend wouldn’t give her their son’s car seat.

Kauffman’s client testified that he did get upset with his girlfriend for feeding their baby pizza, but the disagreement never turned physical.

Fourth-degree assault, a gross misdemeanor, carries a maximum sentence of one year in jail.