He beat his father with a crowbar, but claimed that the victim stepped on a stump and hit himself – Ziarul de Iasi

A resident of Iași put his own son in prison after a family scandal. The complaint submitted to the Police by the father, combined with the fact that the son did not admit his guilt, amounted to a sentence of execution in detention. The son will also have to pay the father moral damages.

Between Vasile Rusu and his father there was an older conflict related to the ownership of an inherited land, located in the immediate vicinity of the two households. More than once, the animosity between father and son had degenerated into mutual physical and verbal violence. A new argument broke out on February 21, 2019, when the father called an acquaintance to take the disputed land with his tractor. Around 4:00 p.m., Rusu also came to the scene, claiming his rights to the land. The adversarial discussion was ended by the son, who hit his father on the head with a crowbar. He then proceeded to punch and kick him, after which he left the scene. The father was transported to Pașcani Municipal Hospital to receive medical care. He needed about a week of care.

Vasile Rusu seems to have done everything possible to end up behind bars. During the criminal investigation, he refused to give statements as a suspect and as a defendant. Sent to court, he declared in front of the Pașcani Court that he does not consider himself guilty and that he does not agree to perform unpaid work for the benefit of the community. Asked by the judges if he wanted to propose witnesses in his defense, he stated that he did not want this evidence to be administered. He only agreed to give one statement during the inquest. He stated that he had gone out to pick nettles with his son and saw his father plowing the land with a fellow citizen. He shouted at them to leave, but only the neighbor complied. He went on his way, and on his return he heard the father accuse him of beating him. It wasn’t true. Probably, the old man had stepped on some stump, tripped and hit the tractor or the end of the plow himself. Corroborating the statements of the witnesses with the medico-legal certificate obtained by the old man, the judges rejected Rusu’s statement as insincere.

The magistrates of Pașcani Court came to the conclusion that the son had indeed assaulted his father, and it was not the first time he had been violent. He had been sentenced once to a criminal fine of 1,800 lei, also for assaulting his father, and a second time, to a criminal fine of 1,200 lei, for another fight in which he had been involved. The judges took into account the father’s age, 74 years, hitting with a blunt metal object can have particularly serious consequences. In addition, the father had obtained an order of protection against the son shortly after the incident. “The court appreciates that the defendant very easily resorted to physically assaulting the injured person, to whom, although he is her father, he was frequently physically and verbally violent. The court appreciates that the deed was committed in humiliating conditions for the injured person, in public and face to face with other people, which denotes a particular audacity of the defendant in ignoring the elementary norms of social coexistence”, the judges noted.

Rusu was sentenced to one year and six months in prison, to be served in detention, as well as to pay a total criminal fine of 2,400 lei. At the request of his father, Rusu was also obliged to pay moral damages in the amount of 10,000 lei. The sentence was appealed by both the defendant and his father. The case went to the Court of Appeal.