Court Expands Sweep of Assault-Harm to Include All Volitional Acts

State v. Dorn, Minn.S.Ct., 12/7/2016.  Ms. Dorn pushed D.E. when he accused her of being a drug dealer.  It wasn't a hard push; he may have just sort of leaned back then returned to the upright position, like those air-inflated Christmas decorations.  Ms. Dorn then pushed * again.  Still not a hard push but this time D.E. lost his balance, may have stumbled and fell into the embers of a nearby bonfire. The state charged Ms. Dorn with assault in the first degree - D.E.'s injuries met the definition of "great bodily harm - and a jury convicted her.  The judge put her on probation forever instead of sending her to prison.  The court of appeals affirmed the conviction.

Ms. Dorn said what she did wasn't an assault because she didn't intentionally harm D.E. and because her actions did not directly cause D.E.'s injuries.  She said that the statute required proof of some intent to harm D.E.  Justice McKeig rejects this assertion. Assault/harm requires that an individual assault another and inflict great bodily harm.  "Assault" in this instance means the intentional infliction of bodily harm upon another. 

Now, Minnesota's assault statute has always been incredibly broad; it is now breath takenly so.  Justice McKeig has replaced the supposed mental state required of criminal assault - intentional infliction of bodily harm - with any volitional act upon another person.  If that volitional act results in a common law "battery" - the intentional application of unlawful force against the person of another - then the assault statute's requirements are met.  The extent of injury then determines the degree of assault that has been committed.  This is so even when, apparently, the resulting harm from the battery is totally unwitting.  Mischiefly the Justice offers absolutely no guidance on what the outer limits - if, indeed, there are any - of this sweeping expansion of the assault statutes may be. So the next time you think about giving a colleague a congratulatory slap on the back for a job well done, reconsider, because you've just committed a criminal assault. If your colleague isn't paying enough attention, stumbles back and hits her head on, say, a concrete wall, you're off to prison for a felony assault.