{"id":90355,"date":"2022-03-29T02:57:58","date_gmt":"2022-03-28T21:27:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/could-will-smith-face-criminal-charges-for-slapping-chris-rock\/"},"modified":"2022-03-29T02:59:03","modified_gmt":"2022-03-28T21:29:03","slug":"will-smith-facing-criminal-charges-for-slapping-chris-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/will-smith-facing-criminal-charges-for-slapping-chris-rock\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Smith facing criminal charges for slapping Chris Rock?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

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\u2019s a chance that he\u2019s not out of the woods when it comes to legal liability or criminal charges.<\/p>\n

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. \u201chighly unlikely.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cLaw enforcement is going to walk away from this. Not with a non-cooperating witness. They need him,\u201dYeretsian stated. <\/p>\n

And while any other criminal charges would be considered a huge surprise, that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s impossible. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Academy<\/p><\/div>\n

The idea of \u201cpressing charges\u201dIt 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. <\/p>\n

Smith stormed the Oscars stage during the live show on Sunday and struck Rock for making a joke about Smith\u2019s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. In this instance, however, \u201ca slap is not a felony,\u201dRahmani 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\u2019s office to obtain a warrant for a misdemeanor arrest should they want to prosecute. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s certainly possible. You can\u2019t have people slapping each other and battering each other. This is a pretty high profile case, so I\u2019m assuming a prosecution is possible,\u201dRahmani spoke. \u201cIt\u2019s really up to his office to pursue it. It\u2019s not up to Chris Rock.\u201d<\/p>\n

Feuer\u2019s office did not respond to \u2019s request for comment. <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Oscar<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u2019t cooperating), or the battery or assault would have had to have occurred within the presence of a police officer, and \u201cseeing it on video or a TV, that\u2019s not enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s more, Yeretsian adds that Smith\u2019s comments, in which he twice shouted at Rock, \u201cKeep my wife\u2019s name out your f\u2014ing mouth,\u201d don\u2019t rise to the level of being able to prosecute based on criminal threats. <\/p>\n

Gascon\u2019s 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 \u201cgo away\u201d and not stay on Smith\u2019s record, potentially with an informal hearing between the two to work anything out. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn 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\u2019s going to get filed,\u201d Yeretsian adds. \u201cNow if this happened years ago, maybe things would\u2019ve been different. And if Chris Rock was interested in filing, they would\u2019ve been filed, 100%, but he\u2019s just not cooperating. He\u2019s letting it go.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Oscars<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s a chance that he\u2019s not out of the woods when it comes to legal liability or criminal charges. Lara Yeretsian, a criminal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":90356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101,3,105,106],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/1648502880_Could-Will-Smith-Face-Criminal-Charges-for-Slapping-Chris-Rock.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90355"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}