Under Wisconsin law, battery is defined as intentionally causing bodily harm to someone else. This offense is sometimes referred to as assault, and it may apply in a variety of situations, such as when an argument escalates out of control and turns into a fight in which one person injures the other. While battery is usually charged as a misdemeanor, there are some circumstances where it may result in felony charges for either substantial battery or aggravated battery. By understanding when these charges may apply, a person who is accused of assaulting someone else or engaging in behaviors that are considered battery can determine their options for defending against a conviction and avoiding or minimizing the penalties that may apply.

When Can Battery Be Charged as a Felony?

The key issue that may affect battery charges will be related to the forms of bodily harm that were allegedly inflicted. Bodily harm will generally involve physical injuries that caused pain or resulted in illnesses or impairments. In cases of minor bodily harm, such as bruises or small cuts and scrapes, battery may result in Class A misdemeanor charges. A person who is convicted of a Class A misdemeanor may be sentenced to up to nine months in jail and fined up to $10,000.

Felony charges may apply in cases where battery resulted in substantial bodily harm. Wisconsin law defines substantial bodily harm as a bodily injury that resulted in lacerations that required stitches or staples, a fractured bone (including a broken nose), a loss of consciousness, a burn, or a lost or broken tooth. Substantial battery is a Class I felony, and a conviction may be punished by three years and six months in jail and a maximum $10,000 fine.

In 2020, the Wisconsin Department of Justice's Division of Forensic Sciences reported the average time it took the state’s crime lab to process DNA evidence analysis was 94 days. Although this was a slight decrease from the prior year, it was still significantly longer than the 76 days it took in 2017. These types of delays can cause the wheels of justice to turn very slowly for a defendant, but how does it affect a defendant’s constitutional right to a speedy trial?

DNA Testing

Whenever police collect evidence that needs to be tested, that evidence is sent to one of the three state crimes labs. According to the lab’s Administrator for the Division of Forensic Sciences, almost all of the evidence their department receives are for felony charges. The process usually involves a “first-come-first-serve basis,” although there are situations where evidence may be able to get pushed to the front of the line, such as when there is a public safety threat or there is a jury trial scheduled.

Until the evidence for a case has been processed by the lab, the criminal justice process cannot proceed. Although a defendant can be charged with a crime, there can be no trial until the evidence testing results have been returned. This means that a pending charge can hang over a defendant’s head for months on end with no timely resolution.

One of the most debilitating, malignant, yet elusive social issues that plagues the United States today is domestic abuse. This form of violence occurs more often than anyone would care to admit; the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey reported that around 1 in 4 women and 1 in 10 men reported experiencing physical violence, sexual violence and/or stalking in their lifetimes. Laws surrounding these crimes are now typically punished harshly and when possible, to the fullest extent of the law. In some cases, the officers may have no choice but to arrest the alleged suspect, due to the mandatory arrest policy for domestic violence situations.

How Domestic Arrests are Determined

Wisconsin law outlines a variety of situations in which arrests must be made after a domestic violence call has been made. If the police are called to the scene, they are required to make an arrest if they determine that a person is committing or has committed domestic abuse consistent with a crime against a family or household member, and one of the following is true:

• The officer has reason to believe that such domestic abuse is likely to continue.

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Not all crimes are created equally, so it goes without saying that not all crimes will be punished equally either. There are actually a variety of options when it comes to sentencing a person for committing a crime in Wisconsin. The most obvious punishment that a person thinks of for a criminal would be jail time, but many studies have found that spending time in jail does not actually provide much in the way of rehabilitative services, especially when it comes to juveniles and other low-level offenders. In some situations, a judge may believe it is appropriate to sentence an offender to a type of community supervision. This type of sentence allows the offender to complete his or her sentence outside of jail while supervised by the Department of Corrections (DOC).

Types of Community Supervision

In general, community supervision is the broad term used to refer to the sentences offenders serve while they are outside of prison. There are various types of community supervision, including:

There are many things that you need identification (ID) for, such as getting married, taking a flight, applying for public aid and assistance, purchasing a house, and the list goes on. For many teenagers, fake ID cards are an attractive option to allow them to purchase alcohol and drink with their friends even though they are under the age of 21. The existence of fake ID cards undermines the validity of legitimate ID cards, which is why cases involving false identification are taken so seriously. Getting a fake ID card can seem like a good idea, but if you are caught using a fake ID in Wisconsin, you could face serious criminal charges that could have a major impact on your future.

Wisconsin Fake ID Laws

Most of the time, if a juvenile is caught with a fake ID card, he or she purchased or obtained the card from another person in an attempt to buy alcohol. Wisconsin law states that juveniles could be charged with a fake ID offense if they do any of the following: