Defense against Harassment Charges

harassment

If you have been accused of harassment, you should hire an experienced criminal defense attorney to help you fight the charges.

At Pearson & Paris, we have more than 22 years of combined legal experience that we will use in your defense. Perhaps more importantly, our top criminal defense attorney is a former senior felony prosecutor who knows how the prosecutors handle these cases. That knowledge allows us to create effective strategies ranging from negotiating plea bargains to waging full on court battles.

Harassment

Harassment is a confusing type of charge. The harassment statute, codified under K.R.S. §§ 525.070 and 525.080, is a legislative response to criminalizing various exceptions to First Amendment rights, such as fighting words, words that present a clear and present danger, and obscenity. The difficulty in applying the harassment statute is that it is incredibly difficult, for example, to define what obscenity is. As one United States Supreme Court Justice once remarked: “I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it.” This is hardly a concrete standard on which to base a prosecution. The most common application of the harassment statute is the first provision that criminalizes harassment in the context of touching, striking, shoving and kicking someone.

Possible Consequences for Harassment

Harassment is a Class B misdemeanor and is punishable by a jail sentence not to exceed 90 day.

Possible Defenses for Harassment

The central defense in a harassment case will often center on “lack of intent.” Since any of the various ways of committing harassment must be accompanied by a specific intent to harass, annoy or alarm, the defense will focus on the fact that the acts were done either accidentally or unknowingly, but in the context of legitimate conversation.

The remaining defenses that may be applied in a harassment case apply equally to those that may apply in any other criminal case. This includes an analysis of any violation of constitutional rights, such as the right to remain silent, the right to counsel, the right to have any searches and seizures based on probable cause, a proper warrant, and the right to due process in the proper preservation of evidence that may be used against you. Many other defenses are available that rely on scrutinizing and exposing weaknesses in the prosecutor’s case, such as biased or incompetent witnesses, flawed crime scene investigation, flawed administration and procedures in collecting breath, blood or urine for forensic testing, incompetent computer evidence, flawed photo lineups and inaccurate crime scene/accident reconstructions.

It is important that you hire a skilled and experienced harassment lawyer to defend you in a harassment case in Louisville, Jefferson County, or across Kentucky.

Call us at 502-688-5200 in the Greater Louisville area and across Kentucky.

Contact Our Firm in La Grange, Kentucky for an initial consultation.

For an initial consultation with a Louisville criminal law attorney, contact Pearson & Paris. We represent clients throughout Trimble, Henry, Oldham, Jefferson, Shelby, and Spencer counties in such cities as Louisville, St. Matthews, Lyndon, Prospect, Anchorage, Hurstbourne, Middletown, Jeffersontown, Shively, Crestwood, Goshen, Buckner, La Grange, Simpsonville, Shelbyville, Mt. Washington and Shepherdsville.