Ray Rice’s domestic violence situation has dominated the
news this past week. There are so many different aspects to this story, but the
one I want to focus on today is the non-NFL, legal side of this case. In May of
this year, Rice entered into a plea bargain with the Atlantic County Prosecutor’s
Office. Rice would enter into a diversionary program to help with his anger
issues as well as he needs to stay out of trouble for a year and in exchange, the prosecutor would
drop all charges if Rice successfully completed his end of the deal. This pleaagreement was heavily criticized. Seemingly, everyone agreed this penalty was
too lenient, with many clamoring that Rice deserved jail time. Due to public outrage, this past week the NewJersey State Senate opened up an investigation into the Atlantic County prosecutor’soffice for how they handled Ray Rice’s case. I’ve read a lot of articles
regarding Ray Rice, and none really delve into the nuance of his legal
proceeding or domestic violence legal proceedings in general. I wanted to do
that today and share my experiences as a prosecutor handling domestic violence
cases.
To give you some of my qualifications, I am a licensed
attorney in the State of Illinois and have been since November of 2012. During
my last semester of law school, I interned at the local State’s Attorney’s
Office (SAO) in the domestic violence division.
After law school, I spent about a year working as a prosecutor in a
small Illinois county. While working at that SAO, my job was essentially to
prosecute everything that was not a felony (a felony is a crime which, if
sentenced, could land you more than a year in jail). I prosecuted everything from
dog bite cases to DUIs to, yes, domestic battery cases. I have since left that
SAO and I am now working as a private criminal defense attorney. Oh, and I’m a
huge NFL fan.
