In the state of Texas, many ask what the essential difference between battery and assault is. In Texas, we call it an assault. There is no assault and battery. Battery could be part of an assault.
Our Penal Code lists it as an assault. And assault could be an offensive touching, pushing someone, spitting on them, or throwing something at them. If it’s on a family member, they can charge you with an assault family violence. Also, someone you’re dating can charge you with family violence. As defined under our laws, family violence includes a dating relationship.
Therefore, if you have a partner and you offended them by the way you touch them, they may file a complaint. Or if you throw something and it accidentally hits them, they still can do the same. Then, here you are now charged with either a class A misdemeanor. They can also charge you with a class C assault for an offensive touching. If the court convicted of an assault in the past, they could then charge you with a third degree felony.
On that note, our law does not recognize deferred adjudication as something that would allow you not to enhance an assault offense. Deferred adjudication means that the court did not find you guilty of an assault. Even if you have pled guilty to an offense, and received deferred adjudication, and you did what you need to do under your probation and the court did not convict of the crime, if they charge you with that again, they can still enhance that punishment range up to 10 years in prison.
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