[JRutledge]

I emailed a friend of mine that is a football official and is a lawyer. I am posting his response to me when I asked him what was self-defense and what how the law might see this. Here is his answer below.

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Jeff,

As you can imagine the answer is complicated, and in
most cases, depends on state law. In general,
however, self-defense is one defense to a civil or
criminal battery charge. "Defense" means - yes, I did
it, but it was justified because . . .

To claim self-defense, the general rule is the person
claiming self-defense has the right to "meet force
with equal force necessary to defend himself." A few
examples of what violates this limitation, if
physically pushed, the person claiming SD cannot pull
a gun and shoot the aggressor. Pushing back is more
likely an acceptable response.

A second rule of SD is that the person claiming SD
must withdraw when danger can be avoided. This
generally means that the response to one push by an
aggressor is limited. One cannot push back and then
proceed to assult the aggressor. This also means,
however, that SD may not be available as a defense if
the person that wants to make th claim could
reasonably withdraw with no further danger even after
being pushed.

One footnote, SD is a defense. In an investigation,
police generally are only interested in when a crime
has potentially occurred. If they determine a push
has occurred, they could make arrests based on that
information alone, as it is not there responsibility
to investigate defenses.

I bring up that situation because I know it occurred
in a football game. An official was arrested after
the game for bumping a coach. He was later acquitted,
but he was arrested and charged.

I hope that helps. These are some general rules.
Laws could be different depending on the state.

(My Lawyer friend)
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Funny this is pretty much what I said. I guess a Judge on a TV show knows what they are talking about?

Peace