Battery On Spouse Sentencing – Penal Code Section 243

Battery on a Spouse/Domestic Partner Sentencing & Punishment – Penal Code section 243

When domestic violence is committed against a spouse, a cohabitant, a person who is the parent of the defendant’s child, former spouse, fiance, or fiancee, or a person with whom the defendant currently has, or has had, a dating or engagement relationship, the battery is punishable by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars ($2,000), or by imprisonment in a county jail for a period of not more than one year, or by both that fine and imprisonment.

If probation is granted, or the sentence is suspended, the defendant must participate and enroll in, for no less than one year, and successfully complete, a batterer’s treatment program. Additional conditions of probation may include the defendant must make to a battered women’s shelter, up to a maximum of five thousand dollars ($5,000). Also, The defendant must reimburse the victim for reasonable costs of counseling and other reasonable expenses that the court finds are the direct result of the defendant’s offense.