District court Sinsheim. Photo: Archive / Christiane Barth
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Sinsheim / Neidenstein. (bju) Because he heard music too loud, a 23-year-old now had to answer before the Sinsheim district court. But when the criminal complaints were read out, it became clear that the incident at the end of October 2020 was not quite that harmless. The defendant must answer for offense, assault and assault on law enforcement officers.
“I don’t remember anything,” said the defendant, who on the day in question had probably looked too deeply into the glass. “Also a statement,” commented judge Bärbel Hönes, who, like the lawyer, regretted that the accused, who worked as a temporary worker, did not want to give any information about his personal and economic circumstances.
The witnesses then brought more light into the darkness. With “stamping” he wanted to draw attention to the loud music, said the first witness, who had lived directly above the defendant and was particularly concerned about the sleep of his two-year-old daughter. Only after ringing the doorbell several times did the defendant open the door and grossly insult the witness’s wife, who had accompanied her partner down the floor. According to the witness, “kicking” and “trying to reach into the face” were only briefly painful, “but without consequences”.
He did not perceive the accused as completely drunk. The contact with the alarmed police was more intense. According to the police chief inspector’s statement, even the defendant’s mother asked for help to bring her son to his senses. The commissioner perceived the accused as “impulsive” and “verbally aggressive”. He ran excitedly back and forth with apparently extreme fluctuations in emotions.
When the Neidensteiner approached a police officer threateningly, “we wanted to handcuff him and bring him to the ground, but the defendant resisted”. In doing so, he did not hit, but “locked” his arms. While “bringing it to the ground”, an officer suffered a graze on his thumb while the police chief inspector twisted his knee. The resulting tear in the inner ligament and meniscus caused the witness to be incapacitated for one week and four weeks in the office.
“The requested 1000 euros in compensation for pain and suffering have already been paid by the defendant,” the witness told the judge. It was also not apparent to him that the accused was drunk. “He knew what he was doing.” The fact that the alcohol level was around two per mille after evaluating the doctor’s report gave the judge something to think about. The criminal record did not make a good impression either. Theft, insults, damage to property and a bike ride with almost 1.7 per mille read out from Judge Hönes the offenses that have all occurred in the past two years.
One of the reasons that the public prosecutor’s office demanded an eight-month sentence with three-year probation and 60 hours of social work. The lawyer of the accused brought a reduced culpability into play because of the alcohol. The compensation for pain and suffering that had already been paid was also a positive sign, so that he pleaded for the charges of insult, bodily harm and resistance to state violence with fines as a measure of punishment.
“Seven months imprisonment with two years probation as well as 1000 euros to the addiction counseling, Blue Cross'”, judged Hönes. When looking at the criminal record, a fine is no longer sufficient as before, she justified the verdict and now hopes for a “learning effect” for the accused. “To some extent you also have a drinking problem, because if you seem so steadfast with this amount of alcohol, that should give you food for thought,” she addressed the defendant. She recommended that he seek addiction counseling, and especially in the future to remain “unpunished”.
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