| even the trivial jail time of 30 days is not what he'll actually serve--that's apparently only 13 days. towards the end of the article: "The parties had apparently decided to knock the two days off what was effectively a 15-day jail sentence, making it 13 for Gattani. And Gattani would be allowed to serve the weekends first, in accordance with his preference." (the "two days" refers to portions of two consecutive days Gattani spent in jail immediately after his arrest.) the sentence is of course based on the crime he was charged with--but he crime he was charged with was not "felony assault", instead it was watered down to avoid any chance that he'll be deported. But to 36-year-old Rastogi’s dismay, the top charge against Abhishek was reduced from felony assault to felony accessory after the fact, with an accompanying misdemeanor of “offensive touching.” so those nine or so loud whacks heard in the audio recording--the sound of Gattani hitting his wife on the side of the head with a closed fist--were just "offensive touching" and the "accessory after the fact" is just bizarre. Gattani wasn't an accessory to the assault, he was the assailant--the only one! The particular type of accessory--"after the fact"--refers to someone who did not even participate in the primary offense, but was only involved after it was committed (eg, usually invoked when someone conceals or destroys evidence of the crime). and even to that Alice-in-Wonderland charge, Gattani only had to plead "no contest"; apparently he wasn't required to plead "guilty" to get the benefit of the plea bargain. |