Though the Los Angeles Police Department said Sunday that Chris Rock had declined to file a police report against Will Smith after the actor slapped the comedian on stage at the Oscars, there’s a chance that he’s not out of the woods when it comes to legal liability or criminal charges.
Lara Yeretsian, a criminal defense attorney, says that Rock could not be interested in the LAPD filing charges. Instead, the LAPD would have to claim something like disturbing the peaceful for them to file charges. However, such a move would be illegal. “highly unlikely.”
“Law enforcement is going to walk away from this. Not with a non-cooperating witness. They need him,”Yeretsian stated.
And while any other criminal charges would be considered a huge surprise, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.
The idea of “pressing charges”It is not a lawful misconception, according to Neama Rahmani of West Coast Trial Lawyers, who was a former federal prosecutor. Rock choosing to bring a civil case has little to do w/o whether any prosecutor from the state chooses to charge Smith.
Smith stormed the Oscars stage during the live show on Sunday and struck Rock for making a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. In this instance, however, “a slap is not a felony,”Rahmani states that the most serious charge could be brought would be a misdemeanor. The jurisdiction would be vested in Mike Feuer, the LA City Attorney, and not Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon. And both Rahmani and Yeretsian agree it would likely be up to Feuer’s office to obtain a warrant for a misdemeanor arrest should they want to prosecute.
“It’s certainly possible. You can’t have people slapping each other and battering each other. This is a pretty high profile case, so I’m assuming a prosecution is possible,”Rahmani spoke. “It’s really up to his office to pursue it. It’s not up to Chris Rock.”
Feuer’s office did not respond to ’s request for comment.
Rahmani also adds that for a misdemeanor arrest to occur without a warrant, there would have to be a complaining victim, (in this case, Rock, who isn’t cooperating), or the battery or assault would have had to have occurred within the presence of a police officer, and “seeing it on video or a TV, that’s not enough.”
Battery can be punished by a maximum fine of $2000 and a minimum of six months imprisonment in a county prison. This is much lower than a misdemeanor, which can lead to charges of just one day shy of one year. What’s more, Yeretsian adds that Smith’s comments, in which he twice shouted at Rock, “Keep my wife’s name out your f—ing mouth,” don’t rise to the level of being able to prosecute based on criminal threats.
Gascon’s office however also has a policy that certain types of misdemeanor charges are not filed, and Yeretsian argues that even if something were ultimately filed, the case would “go away” and not stay on Smith’s record, potentially with an informal hearing between the two to work anything out.
“In the current political and legal criminal justice system atmosphere, in LA, in California, in Southern California and in the county of LA, this is not something that’s going to get filed,” Yeretsian adds. “Now if this happened years ago, maybe things would’ve been different. And if Chris Rock was interested in filing, they would’ve been filed, 100%, but he’s just not cooperating. He’s letting it go.”
