Assault Charges in Charlotte: What You Need to Know

North Carolina General Statute 14-33 defines misdemeanor assaults, batteries, and affrays, establishing a three-tier classification system: Class 2 misdemeanors for simple assault, Class 1 misdemeanors under specific circumstances, and Class A1 misdemeanors for more serious offenses involving deadly weapons, serious injury, or assaults against protected classes of victims. This statute serves as the foundation for assault prosecutions in North Carolina.

Simple assault in North Carolina is any overt act or attempt to immediately physically injure another person, or creating the unequivocal appearance of attempting to do so with force or violence. This includes threatening someone with bodily harm when you appear to have the immediate ability to carry out that threat, even without physical contact. North Carolina General Statute 14-33(a) classifies simple assault as a Class 2 misdemeanor but does not define assault itself, leaving courts to rely on common law definitions.

You can face an assault charge in North Carolina even if no physical contact ever occurred. North Carolina law recognizes assault as more than just hitting or striking someone. A person may be charged based on actions that place another in reasonable fear of imminent bodily harm. That means the prosecution doesn’t have to prove actual injury or even physical touch.

An assault may involve an attempted but unsuccessful blow, a show of force combined with apparent ability to carry it out, or other conduct that creates an immediate threat of violence. For example, swinging and missing, or pointing a gun can qualify.

Verbal threats, standing alone, are not enough. There must be a physical act that communicates a present and immediate danger of harmful contact. The legal question is whether a reasonable person in the other person’s position would believe they were about to be hurt.

Assault charges without touching are still serious, and how the conduct is interpreted can depend on specific facts.

Assaulting a referee, umpire, coach, or other sports official can make your charges more serious. Instead of simple assault (Class 2 misdemeanor), you may face a Class 1 misdemeanor, which carries harsher penalties. This enhanced charge applies when the official is doing their job during the game or immediately after the event ends. It doesn't matter what level of sports. The law covers everything from little league games to professional events, including school sports, community leagues, and organized athletic activities throughout North Carolina.

Sports officials include referees, umpires, coaches, and others who enforce rules or supervise players during organized sports events. The law applies to school sports (elementary through college), organized athletic activities sponsored by a community, business, or nonprofit organization, professional or semiprofessional events, and any other organized athletic activity in North Carolina. This covers officials at every level of organized competition.

Several factors can elevate simple assault to a Class A1 misdemeanor, the most serious level of misdemeanor assault charges. These include: using a deadly weapon, inflicting serious injury, being a male over 18 who assaults a female (assault on a female), assaulting a pregnant woman, assaulting a child under 12, or assaulting certain protected workers while they're doing their jobs. Protected workers include government employees, school personnel, public transit operators, company police officers, campus police officers, and rideshare drivers.

In North Carolina, serious injury may include bodily injury that creates a substantial risk of death, serious permanent disfigurement, coma, conditions causing extreme pain, permanent loss or impairment of bodily functions, or injuries requiring prolonged hospitalization. Courts evaluate serious injury based on the specific facts and circumstances of each case, considering factors like the nature and extent of harm inflicted.

Assaulting school personnel can make your charges more serious. Instead of simple assault, you may face a Class A1 misdemeanor with harsher penalties. Protected school personnel include teachers, staff, independent contractors doing school work, and adult volunteers under supervision. This protection covers all school activities on school property, at school events anywhere, and during school transportation. The enhanced charges can apply whether the person is a full-time employee or volunteer helper.

Domestic violence assault can result in more serious charges. North Carolina created a specific "misdemeanor crime of domestic violence" under GS 14-32.5 in 2023 that's a Class A1 misdemeanor for using or attempting to use physical force, or threatening someone with a deadly weapon, against spouses, dating partners, parents with a child in common, family members, household members, and others currently or in the past involved in an intimate relationship. These charges carry harsher penalties than simple assault. Additionally, assault with serious injury or deadly weapons between people in these relationships that occurs in front of a minor includes enhanced sentencing requirements.

School personnel who take reasonable actions in good faith to end fights or altercations between students receive legal protection under North Carolina law. This protects educators and staff who appropriately intervene in student conflicts from facing assault charges or lawsuits for their intervention. The law recognizes that school personnel must sometimes use physical force to separate fighting students and protect student safety.

Assaulting public transit operators or rideshare drivers like Uber and Lyft can make your charges more serious. Instead of simple assault, you may face a Class A1 misdemeanor with harsher penalties when the driver is working. This protection covers city bus drivers, taxi drivers, and rideshare drivers while they're providing transportation services. The law treats attacks on transportation workers as more serious because they're performing an essential public service.

Assaulting police officers, government employees, or local government workers can make your charges more serious. Instead of simple assault, you may face a Class A1 misdemeanor with harsher penalties when they're performing their official duties. This protection covers state employees, county workers, city employees, and law enforcement officers while they're doing their jobs. The enhanced charges apply whether it's a state trooper, city clerk, or county maintenance worker acting in their official capacity.

North Carolina criminal law treats battery as a type of , so the terms are often used interchangeably in criminal charges. Assault can mean either threatening someone with immediate harm (even without touching them) or actually making physical contact. Battery specifically refers to unwanted physical contact, but North Carolina courts consider battery to be assault. In practice, you'll typically see charges labeled as "assault" or rather than just "battery" alone. North Carolina criminal law treats battery as a type of assault, so the terms are often used interchangeably in criminal charges. Assault can refer to physical acts that do not require actual contact; even an attempt to strike or unlawfully touch another person may be enough to violate the law. Battery specifically means unwanted physical contact, but North Carolina courts prosecute this as assault. In practice, you will typically see charges labeled as "assault" or "assault and battery," rather than just "battery" alone.

Repeat domestic violence charges in North Carolina can result in harsher penalties. Under N.C.G.S. § 14-33.2 (Habitual Misdemeanor Assault), a person who has two or more prior convictions for certain assault or domestic violence-related offenses may be charged with a Class H felony for a subsequent offense. Additionally, if someone is convicted a second time of domestic assault inflicting serious injury or involving a deadly weapon in the presence of a minor, North Carolina law requires at least 30 days of active jail time. The law treats repeat domestic violence as evidence of increased danger and imposes more severe consequences to protect victims.

North Carolina law recognizes two types of deadly weapons. Some weapons are considered "deadly weapons per se,” meaning they're inherently dangerous by their nature, such as guns, knives, and brass knuckles. Other objects may become deadly weapons depending on how they're used and their capability to cause death or serious bodily harm in the specific circumstances. For example, a baseball bat, hammer, or even a beer bottle can be considered a deadly weapon if used in a way that could cause serious injury or death.

Assaulting certified campus police or company security officers can make your charges more serious. Instead of simple assault, you may face a Class A1 misdemeanor with harsher penalties when they're performing their official duties. This protection covers university police officers and certified security officers at businesses, hospitals, and other private facilities. The enhanced charges apply if the officers are properly certified by the state and acting in their official capacity.

Several defenses may be available depending on your specific situation. Self-defense applies when the other person was the aggressor and you reasonably believed force was necessary to prevent imminent harm to yourself. You can also defend others if you used appropriate force to protect someone else from harm. Defense of your home allows reasonable force to protect your property from being damaged or stolen. In some cases, consent by the alleged victim can be a defense if they voluntarily agreed to the physical contact. The strength of these defenses depends on the specific facts of your case, which is why you deserve an experienced criminal defense attorney to evaluate your situation.

Multiple punches thrown during a single fight typically result in one assault charge, not separate charges for each punch. North Carolina courts look at whether you committed separate criminal acts or if it was all part of one continuous fight. For example, if you punch someone three times in a row during one argument, that's generally one assault charge. However, if you fight someone, leave, then come back later and fight them again, that could be two separate assault charges.

North Carolina has specific assault by strangulation charges under N.C.G.S. 14-32.4(b). Assaulting someone and inflicting physical injury by strangulation is a Class H felony, which carries more serious penalties than misdemeanor assault charges. This law recognizes that strangulation is particularly dangerous and often escalates in domestic violence situations, so it carries enhanced penalties compared to other forms of assault.

In North Carolina, assault generally requires intent. You can be charged if you intentionally try to cause harmful or offensive physical contact, or if you take some physical action that is intended to make another person reasonably fear immediate bodily harm. Words or threats alone, without some physical act, do not constitute assault. "Communicating threats" is a different criminal charge. Accidental contact or negligence, without intent, is not assault, but reckless actions that cause harm may result in other criminal charges depending on the circumstances.

Threatening someone is typically charged as "communicating threats" under GS 14-277.1, not assault. Communicating threats is a separate Class 1 misdemeanor that covers willfully threatening to physically injure someone when the threat is communicated in a manner that would cause a reasonable person to believe it's likely to be carried out. For assault charges, North Carolina law generally requires either physical contact or actions that create the appearance of an immediate attempt to cause physical harm, not just verbal threats.

Self-defense can be a complete defense to assault charges if you can show the other person attacked you first and you reasonably believed you needed to use force to protect yourself from immediate harm. You can only use the amount of force that seemed necessary at the time. You can't use excessive force. Even if you started the confrontation, you may still be able to claim self-defense if the other person's response was so severe that you faced imminent danger of death or serious injury, or if you tried to withdraw but they continued attacking. Whether self-defense applies depends on the specific facts of your case.

You can still face criminal charges even if someone agreed to fight you. North Carolina law includes "affray" charges under GS 14-33, which specifically covers situations where people voluntarily engage in fighting. Affray is a Class 2 misdemeanor that applies when two or more people fight by agreement or mutual combat in a public place. Consent to fight is not a complete defense to assault or affray charges, especially when the fighting disturbs public peace or results in serious injury.