ASSAULT AND BATTERY
Jury sides with defendant in parking lot fight
On April 6, a jury found that a man wasn’t to blame for a fight in a parking lot that ended when he broke the plaintiff’s finger. In 2008, Robert Burr got in an argument with Sam Lucia while at their grandchildren’s baseball game. Lucia asked Burr if he had caused the dents in his daughter’s car, which were not there before she parked. Burr claimed that he pointed his two index fingers to show how far he had parked behind the vehicle when Lucia grabbed his fingers and snapped them. Lucia claimed that Burr charged at him with his index fingers pointed at eye level. This caused Lucia to instinctively protect his eyes and move Burr’s hands, he claimed. The jury found that Lucia assaulted Burr, but also determined that his actions were justified under the circumstances.
