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Charges of Assault x 7, Criminal Harassment and Threaten Death withdrawn on the eve of trial in the Ontario Court of Justice, Halton Region. A.D. and the complainant, his wife at the time, were in the midst of a separation. One morning while A.D. was attempting to take his son to swimming, the complainant and A.D. got into a heated argument. The argument escalated and there was a physical confrontation. The complainant called police and A.D. was charged with various domestic related offences. Joseph Neuberger was retained as his criminal defence lawyer. The disclosure included a statement from the complainant and the older son of the marriage. The son had not seen an assault but came in during a moment when he thought he had seen his father’s hand raised. The client to his credit had made an audio recording of the event and of two prior arguments. Joseph Neuberger had the audio enhanced and the recordings transcribed. The recordings were disclosed to the Crown. The recording of the event that led to the charge, if listened to carefully, fairly clearly demonstrates that A.D. was slapped twice and then a third time very hard to which the son states “don’t hit back”. The content of the recordings did not deter the Crown from pursuing the charges. Joseph Neuberger also worked closely with the family lawyer and obtained documents from the family court matter that showed that in fact A.D. and the complainant were only common law and had never been civilly married. There was a religious marriage but no civil marriage. Just prior to the argument and the laying of charges, the complainant was arguing with A.D. about wanting him to move out and for her to have sole custody and have the house. As defence counsel reviewed the disclosure in the family case it became clear that the complainant had falsified a civil marriage certificate on a date that A.D. had conclusive evidence he was not in the country. Just prior to trial Joseph Neuberger again put together a chart and memo breaking down time frame by time from the audio recordings and disclosed the family court material. Upon extensive discussions a decision was made by the Crown that there was no longer a reasonable prospect of conviction. The client signed a peace bond and all charges were withdrawn.