What if the police only believed one side of a domestic dispute? You’ve been arrested for domestic violence. And the part you can’t understand is how quickly everyone seemed to decide what happened.
You tried to explain that the argument didn’t start the way the other person claimed. Maybe you said you were defending yourself. Maybe you told officers there were messages, witnesses, or events leading up to the confrontation that changed the entire story. But somewhere along the way, it felt like the decision had already been made. Now you’re the person facing charges.
That’s an incredibly frustrating position to be in, but an officer’s decision to make an arrest does not determine whether you’re guilty of domestic violence in Nebraska. And a police officer making an arrest isn’t a jury reaching a verdict. The version of events summarized in a police report isn’t automatically the version prosecutors can prove beyond a reasonable doubt
The criminal case creates an opportunity to look much more closely at what happened, and at evidence officers may not have known about, obtained, or fully considered that night.
At Miltenberger Law, that’s where we start. Not with whom the police believed first. With what the evidence can actually prove. We represent people accused of domestic violence in Omaha and throughout Nebraska. When our client believes police accepted one person’s account without understanding the complete situation, we go back and examine what happened before, during, and after officers arrived. Because there may be two sides to an argument. And sometimes there are 47 text messages, three neighbors, a doorbell camera, a 911 recording, and body-camera footage with opinions of their own.
Blog Summary: What You’ll Learn
Domestic violence investigations in Nebraska often begin during chaotic, emotional situations in which responding officers must make quick decisions based on limited information. If you were the person arrested, however, the officer’s initial conclusion doesn’t determine whether you are guilty.
In this blog, you’ll learn:
- Why police may arrest one person even when both people accuse each other
- What Nebraska law considers domestic assault
- Why the initial police report may not contain the complete story
- How 911 recordings and police body-camera footage can affect the defense
- Why photographs, medical records, and physical evidence matter
- How text messages can provide important context missing from an accusation
- What happens when both people claim the other person started the confrontation
- How self-defense may apply in a Nebraska domestic assault case
- Why changing or inconsistent statements deserve careful examination
- What to do if you believe police arrested the wrong person
If you’ve been arrested after a domestic dispute in Omaha, don’t assume the police report has already decided your case. An experienced Nebraska criminal defense attorney can independently investigate the evidence and determine whether the prosecution can actually prove what police initially believed happened.
Nebraska Police Usually Arrive After the Most Important Part
Unless an officer personally witnesses the confrontation, police generally arrive after whatever prompted the 911 call has already occurred.
They didn’t see how the argument started.
They may not know whether someone tried to leave. They may not know whether one person blocked a doorway, grabbed the other first, threw something, made a threat, or acted in self-defense.
Instead, officers have to reconstruct the situation.
They may consider:
- Statements from both people
- Who called 911
- Visible injuries
- Damaged property
- Statements from witnesses
- The condition of the residence
- Whether alcohol or drugs appear to be involved
- Previous police calls to the residence
- Information provided by dispatch
- What each person says happened
That’s a lot to sort through while two people may still be angry, frightened, intoxicated, emotional, or loudly explaining why the other person is absolutely the problem.
Officers make a decision based on the information available to them.
But an arrest is the beginning of a criminal case.
It isn’t the end of the investigation.
What Is Domestic Assault Under Nebraska Law?
Nebraska’s domestic assault law is found in Nebraska Revised Statute § 28-323.
The statute recognizes different degrees of domestic assault depending on the alleged conduct, injury, mental state, use of a dangerous instrument, and other circumstances. According to Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-309, a dangerous instrument is “any object which, because of its nature and the manner and intention of its use, is capable of inflicting bodily injury.”
The law applies to conduct involving an “intimate partner,” which can include spouses, former spouses, people who share a child, and people who are or previously were involved in qualifying dating relationships.
Depending on the allegations, a domestic assault prosecution may involve claims that someone:
- Caused bodily injury to an intimate partner
- Threatened an intimate partner with imminent bodily injury
- Used a dangerous instrument
- Caused serious bodily injury
Other allegations may lead to separate charges, including assault by strangulation or suffocation.
What matters for the defense isn’t simply that the police called the incident “domestic violence.” The important questions are what offense was actually charged and whether prosecutors have evidence establishing every required element.
Why Did Nebraska Police Believe the Other Person?
There isn’t necessarily one answer.
Officers may believe one person’s account is more consistent with what they observe at the scene. Perhaps that person has visible injuries. Maybe they called 911 first. Perhaps a neighbor supports part of their account.
Sometimes one person simply provides a more detailed or seemingly consistent statement. None of those things automatically establishes what happened.
Visible injuries, for example, can be important evidence, but they don’t necessarily establish who initiated the confrontation.
Imagine one person grabs another. The second person pushes them away. The first person falls and suffers an injury.
The injury is real. But the injury alone doesn’t tell you the entire sequence of events.
That’s why a domestic violence defense lawyer in Nebraska should look beyond what officers initially concluded and reconstruct the incident using all available evidence.
The Police Report Is Important. It Isn’t Sacred.
A police report can become one of the central documents in a Nebraska domestic violence prosecution.
But remember what it is. It’s a report written after the incident by an officer attempting to summarize what people said, what the officer observed, and what law enforcement believed happened.
It’s not a magical document that becomes unquestionably accurate because somebody added a badge number at the bottom.
A Miltenberger Law defense attorney may compare the report with:
- The actual 911 recording
- Body-camera footage
- Recorded witness interviews
- Photographs
- Medical records
- Text messages
- Surveillance recordings
- Other police reports
Those comparisons can matter. Perhaps the report says someone made a particular statement, but the body-camera recording contains different wording. Maybe the report describes an injury that looks considerably different in photographs.
Perhaps an important statement from the accused received two sentences while the complaining witness’s account received three pages. None of that automatically wins the case.
But discrepancies deserve investigation.
The 911 Call May Tell You How the Story Started
911 recordings can be particularly important because they capture statements made close in time to the alleged incident.
A caller may describe:
- Who allegedly initiated physical contact
- Whether anyone was injured
- Whether a weapon was involved
- Whether someone was attempting to leave
- Whether threats were made
- Who remained at the residence
The tone and content of that call can later be compared with statements given to officers and prosecutors.
Sometimes the accounts remain consistent. Sometimes they don’t.
If important details appear for the first time hours or days later, your domestic violence defense attorney may want to understand why.
Body-Camera Footage Doesn’t Have a Memory
People forget details. People misunderstand questions. People sometimes change their stories. A camera generally records whatever was in front of it.
Police body-camera footage may capture:
- The condition of the residence
- Visible injuries
- Statements made by both people
- Statements from witnesses
- Emotional condition and demeanor
- Damage to property
- Interactions between officers and the parties
- Whether someone attempted to explain self-defense
It can also show how officers conducted the investigation. Did they interview both people separately? Did one person repeatedly interrupt the other? Did an officer appear to reach a conclusion before interviewing everyone? Did somebody’s description change between the beginning and end of the recording?
The written report may summarize a 45-minute encounter in several paragraphs. The video gives the defense an opportunity to watch those 45 minutes. That’s a meaningful difference.
What If You Were Actually Defending Yourself?
One of the most important issues in some Nebraska domestic violence cases is also one of the easiest to miss during a chaotic investigation: Who started the physical confrontation?
Being the person who caused a visible injury does not necessarily mean you were the aggressor. Self-defense can become relevant when someone reasonably uses force to protect themselves under circumstances recognized by Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-1409.
Nebraska courts have addressed self-defense specifically in domestic assault prosecutions. In State v. Bedford, for example, the Nebraska Court of Appeals addressed whether evidence supported giving a self-defense instruction in a domestic assault case involving conflicting descriptions of a physical confrontation.
Potentially important questions include:
- Who initiated physical contact?
- Was someone trying to leave?
- Was an exit blocked?
- Did one person grab or restrain the other?
- How much force was used?
- What happened immediately before the alleged injury?
- Do photographs support either account?
- Did either person describe the confrontation differently later?
Self-defense cases are highly fact-specific. That’s precisely why the facts need to be investigated.
Text Messages Can Supply the Missing Context
Relationships leave digital paper trails. Sometimes very, very long digital paper trails.
Texts sent before an alleged domestic incident may show what the argument was about, whether the parties planned to meet, whether threats were exchanged, or whether someone was attempting to end the interaction. Messages afterward can also become important.
They may contain:
- Descriptions of what happened
- Apologies
- Contradictory statements
- Threats
- Statements about contacting police
- Discussions about custody or divorce
- Statements inconsistent with later allegations
A single screenshot should also be viewed cautiously.
Three sentences pulled from a 200-message conversation can look remarkably different when somebody bothers to read messages one through 197.
If you’re facing charges, preserve the entire conversation. Do not delete messages that appear unfavorable. Do not edit screenshots. And if you’re subject to a protection order or no-contact condition, don’t respond simply because the other person contacted you first.
What If Both People Were Physical?
Domestic disputes in Nebraska don’t always fit neatly into “Person A did everything and Person B did nothing.” Sometimes both people admit physical contact occurred.
One person may say: “They grabbed me, so I pushed them.”
The other may say: “They pushed me, so I grabbed them.”
Welcome to the part where details become rather important.
A defense investigation may need to determine:
- Who initiated the physical encounter
- Whether either person attempted to disengage
- Whether the force used was defensive
- The sequence in which injuries occurred
- Whether either account is corroborated by witnesses
- Whether physical evidence supports one version more than another
The fact that both people participated in a physical confrontation does not eliminate the need to determine individual criminal responsibility.
What Should You Do If You Believe Police Arrested the Wrong Person in Nebraska?
Your first instinct may be to keep explaining. “If the officer would just listen for another five minutes…”
Resist that instinct.
If police have decided to make an arrest, the side of the road, living room, or booking area usually isn’t the place to conduct your defense.
Instead:
- Exercise your right to remain silent. Don’t try to talk yourself out of charges after an arrest decision has been made. Read our guide on why exercising your right to remain silent matters.
- Follow every no-contact condition or protection order. Even if you believe the allegations are completely false.
- Preserve your messages. Keep texts, emails, social media messages, voicemails, and call histories.
- Identify potential witnesses. Write down who saw or heard anything before, during, or after the confrontation.
- Preserve photographs and video. That includes your own injuries, damaged property, surveillance footage, and doorbell-camera recordings.
- Write down what happened. Create a detailed timeline while your memory is fresh.
- Stay off social media. The Douglas County Attorney’s Office is unlikely to dismiss your case because your Facebook post received 84 supportive comments.
- Contact an Omaha domestic violence defense attorney. Let your lawyer communicate with prosecutors and begin investigating the evidence.
The Police Made an Arrest in Nebraska. That Doesn’t Mean They Got the Whole Story.
Domestic violence investigations in Nebraska are difficult.
Police frequently arrive during emotionally charged situations and have to make decisions quickly. Sometimes the evidence available at that moment appears to point strongly in one direction.
But the Nebraska criminal justice system doesn’t end when the handcuffs go on.
Additional evidence can be obtained. Witnesses can be interviewed. Video can be reviewed. Statements can be compared. Defenses can be raised. And prosecutors still carry the burden of proving the charge beyond a reasonable doubt.
If you believe officers heard one side of a domestic dispute and decided the case before understanding yours, Miltenberger Law can investigate what happened.
We represent clients facing domestic assault, strangulation allegations, protection-order issues, and related criminal charges in Omaha and across Nebraska.
Call (402) 217-2267 or contact Miltenberger Law online to schedule a confidential consultation with an experienced Omaha domestic violence defense attorney.
A police report may contain one version of what happened. Your defense should investigate the rest of the story.
