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Who is the victim of this assault charge if he didn't point it at anyone?
There are two types of Assault. Direct and indirect (aka attempted battery and threatened battery). Direct is obvious, x pointed it at y and y is the victim. Indirect is what would be here based on the news article but the state will still have to prove that the gun was pointed at a third party victim (aka the other driver who doesn't even need to know it was pointed at them and likely won't even be found) and that the observer (the victim in this case) was fearful for their life. It seems like current witness testimony nails the first part. How big of a fracking moon bat the witness is controls the second. Also, a dishonest ADA can leverage charges of filing a false report, etc against the victim to make sure they testify correctly as well. I have had too many people, including lawyers, tell me that the "victims" were pressured into testifying for this to be a purely isolated occurrence. However, I would like to think that most ADAs are generally honest and will not try to pull this crap so it likely is not pervasive either. Thirdly, if the witness claims general dread at the sight of a gun, it's not altogether clear to me that this is not enough to convict on that element. I suspect there may be play in the system there on this point.
See here for the jury instructions explaining the differences. http://www.mass.gov/courts/courtsan...ry-instructions/criminal/pdf/6120-assault.pdf