Two Sets of Handcuffs, One Argument: Why Both Parties Sometimes Get Arrested in Domestic Violence Incidents

New York is one of a handful of states with a mandatory arrest law for domestic violence. Under New York Criminal Procedure Law Section 140.10, a police officer must arrest someone when there is reasonable cause to believe that person committed a misdemeanor family offense against a household member, unless the alleged victim specifically requests otherwise. The statute was written to remove discretion from officers and take the burden of pressing charges off the shoulders of a frightened victim. What it was not designed to do is produce two arrests out of one call, yet police arriving at a domestic disturbance sometimes find a situation that refuses to sort itself into a tidy story: both people with visible injuries, both people insisting the other one started it.

A Framework That Is Supposed to Prevent Dual Arrests

The same statute anticipates the problem. When an officer has reasonable cause to believe more than one household member committed a qualifying offense, the officer is not required to arrest everyone involved. Instead, the law directs officers to identify the primary physical aggressor, weighing factors such as the comparative severity of injuries suffered by each person, whether either person has threatened future harm, any reasonably ascertainable history of domestic violence between the parties, and whether either person acted defensively to protect themselves from injury. Self-defense under Article 35 of the Penal Law reinforces this: the statute specifically states that an officer need not arrest someone whose conduct reasonably appears justified.

Where the Framework Breaks Down in Practice

In theory, this should produce a single arrest even in a chaotic, two-sided incident. In practice, officers responding to a fast-moving scene rarely have complete information about injury history or who struck first. Two people with comparable visible injuries, conflicting accounts, and no independent witnesses can leave an officer without a clear basis to single out one party, even though the law is built around exactly that judgment call. That gap between the framework and the reality on the ground is how a dual arrest happens despite a statute designed to prevent it.

A Dual Arrest Is Not the Same as an Equal Case

Being arrested alongside the other party does not mean the two cases carry equal weight once they reach a courtroom. Prosecutors, defense counsel, and eventually a judge look at the same factors an officer was supposed to weigh at the scene, usually with far more complete information available. A self-defense claim, a documented history of prior incidents, or medical records showing disproportionate injury can all reshape how each case is ultimately handled, regardless of how the arrests were initially made.

If you were arrested alongside the other party in a domestic incident, the question of who was actually the primary aggressor deserves a closer look than the arrest report gave it. Our Manhattan assault attorneys at the Law Offices of Jason Goldman can walk through what happened at the scene and what it means for your case. Reach out to our team today.

Source:

nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/CPL/140.10