Resisting Arrest and Battery on a Police Officer Charges in Baton Rouge

It’s common for someone arrested in Baton Rouge to end up facing more than the original charge that started the encounter — resisting arrest and battery on a police officer are two of the charges we see added most often, sometimes even when the underlying original charge is minor or later dropped entirely.

Resisting arrest under Louisiana law covers a broader range of conduct than most people expect — it isn’t limited to physically fighting an officer, and can include things like refusing to comply with instructions or pulling away during an arrest. Battery on a police officer is a more serious charge and generally requires actual physical contact, but officers and prosecutors don’t always agree with the accused about what happened during a fast-moving arrest.

Because these charges often come down to conflicting accounts of a chaotic few seconds, body camera footage, witness statements, and the sequence of events leading up to the arrest all become critical. These are also charges where the original stop or arrest itself sometimes gets scrutinized — if the initial arrest wasn’t lawful, it can affect the resisting charge that followed from it.

If you’ve been charged with resisting arrest or battery on a police officer in Baton Rouge, the details of exactly what happened during the arrest matter more than in almost any other kind of case — talk to an attorney before giving any further statements about it.