Assault and Battery Charges Dropped in San Francisco Champagne-Bottle Attack (CA Penal Code 242)

When 52-year-old (name withheld for privacy) set off to attend his company’s (AKQA) “team-building” social, he never imagined that he would later be arrested for assault.  He was participating in some office-sanctioned merriment with other co-workers, when one of them wanted to listen to dub-step.  The co-worker (an unidentified 30-year-old man) was evidently not a fan of Michael Jackson because as he began to play the song on the office computer system, the co-worker changed the song.  The co-worker, reportedly intoxicated at the time of the incident also has a history of public intoxication and acting violently.  Once, for example, he’d hit a man’s head against the wall at a urinal and poked a finger in someone else’s eye during the same incident.  He had also previously attacked the him in another incident at a local bar.

So, when the much-disliked co-worker tried to take control of the music at the team-building event, he decided to act in what he considered to be self-defense and to hit the co-worker over the head with a champagne bottle as he was rushed.  A jury agreed with his actions and found him not guilty of assault and battery charges (CA Penal Code 242) and could have been sentenced to up to 5 years in prison if he’d been found guilty instead.