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Threat and Insults Insufficient to Establish Appellant Was Initial Aggressor

The Second Department determined that the findings that the juvenile appellant had committed acts which would have constituted assault and menacing had the appellant been an adult were against the weight of the evidence. The court determined the appellant was not the initial aggressor and the appellant had acted in self defense.  The court explained that insults can not be the basis of an “initial aggressor” finding:

The defense of justification is available where, inter alia, the actor is acting in self-defense and the actor was not the initial aggressor … . An actor is not the initial aggressor where his or her conduct consists of “mere insults as opposed to threats” … . Where this defense is raised, the presentment agency must disprove it beyond a reasonable doubt (see Penal Law §§ 25.00, 35.00; Family Ct Act § 303.3).

Here, although the evidence established that the appellant verbally threatened to “slap the glasses off [the complainant’s] face,” the complainant testified that the appellant made this threat before the situation degenerated into a physical fight. Moreover, this type of threat, in the context in which it was uttered, did not constitute the type of threat that would support the conclusion that the appellant was the initial aggressor … . Similarly, although the appellant admitted to insulting the complainant, those insults, considered either alone or in connection with the above-described threat, were not sufficient to make the appellant the initial aggressor in the altercation … .  Matter of Mondy E, 2014 NY Slip Op 06821, 2nd Dept 10-8-14

 

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