For the record, when I was in college, a drunk dude attacked me with a baseball bat because his roommate and I were play-wrestling. (As in, we were laughing, and paused to take off his glasses and everything.)
When attacked, I jumped up and defended myself, resulting in a bloody face on his part. I then went to my room to get away from the baseball bat wielding psycho. Well, apparently, someone had called the cops when they saw him attack me with the bat, but when the cops showed up, he was still standing in the hall and started yelling BS about how I had, "Attacked him with a knife!"
Being in ROTC, I had a field knife on my gear in my room. The cops busted in, unannounced, and started screaming, "Where's the knife, where's the knife???" Confused, I pointed out my knife and they promptly arrested me.
When the guys who witnessed the whole thing figured out that *I* was being charged, they went to the police station and gave reports indicating that there was no knife, and that I was, in fact, attacked with a bat. Didn't matter. Police had "diffused" the situation and just went with what they had.
Because I was in ROTC, interested in becoming an officer (at the time), involved in a fight, and had exposure on "disturbing the peace," my lawyer advised me to take "accelerated rehabilitation," which basically meant I did 80 hours of community service and there was no record.
Here's the clincher: standing in front of the judge, I asked my lawyer to request my knife returned to me since it was a gift from my father on my sixteenth birthday. The judge completely ignored the 20-some odd statements from witnesses saying that there was no knife in the altercation, and ONLY looked at the police report which indicated that MY assailant had claimed a knife and one was found. The judge said...
"I can hardly see returning a knife to a dangerous individual like yourself."
My objections were quickly silenced with threats of "full legal action" and all that jazz.
Yeah. Due process. It's a wonderful thing.