In an effort to gain her cooperation ADA Cabot threatens to charge Mrs. Andrews with assault in the second degree and tells her if convicted she'll be spending three years in prison. Then she says she might be willing to plead her down to assault in the third degree and lower her sentence to 18 months in prison. However third degree assault is a class A misdemeanor, the maximum sentence allowed by law for assault three is 12 months in jail, not a day more.