Chapter 3 - MY OWN CHARGE
I was charged first.
Not Tyler.
That enraged people who heard only pieces.
It should not have.
My conduct was simple to prove.
Video.
Witnesses.
Admission.
I punched Tyler after the danger had stopped.
Then intentionally struck his leg with a metal rod.
Tyler suffered a severe bruise and a hairline fracture.
He did not require surgery.
Still assault.
My attorney, Sarah Price, said:
“Do not build your defense around him deserving it.”
“I’m not.”
“You are emotionally.”
She was right.
“Self-defense?”
“No.”
“Defense of Ethan?”
“Not at that point.”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“Mitigation.”
Provocation.
Extreme emotional disturbance potentially relevant depending charge and jurisdiction.
But not erasure.
I told Sarah:
“I’m pleading to what I did.”
“Not yet.”
“Why?”
“Because the sequence matters.”
“I still did it.”
“Yes. And the law distinguishes acts by degree, intent, injury, context, prior history.”
She looked at me.
May you like
“Accuracy is not avoiding responsibility.”
I hated how much sense that made.
