Domestic Violence Charges

Ordinarily when the police respond to a 911 or other type of call for help related to a domestic violence situation, the police will respond and they’ll make an arrest and then at some point thereafter, the person who called the police or the person who was listed as the alleged victim in that domestic violence incident will no longer want to press charges, will no longer want to prosecute, it happens a lot.

The frustration that a lot of my clients have who were charged with these types of domestic violence offenses is that more times than not, the prosecutor’s office is completely unwilling to honor the wishes of the victim and dismiss the case if the victim does not wish for it to go any further.  They will subpoena the victim, they will force them to come to court. I’ve seen them have the victim physically arrested and brought to court in handcuffs if the victim is unwilling to come to court voluntarily and testify.

There are other instances where a crime did actually occur where the victim calls the police perhaps because the boyfriend or their wife or someone else that they reside with is acting disorderly, making threats or maybe damaged some property and the police come, they investigate the call and end up arresting the person for a relatively minor domestic violence offense. An offense where nobody was injured and in a case like this, if the victim of the offense later feels that they want to handle the matter within the family or they’ve reconciled with the person who was arrested and they don’t want to take it any further, they don’t want the court system involved in their private family affairs. Again, more times than not the prosecution, will turn a deaf ear to that type of request and will pursue the case with or without the victims cooperation.

If you have been charged with a domestic violence offense or if a loved one of yours has been charged with a domestic violence offence, please contact my office and come in for an initial consultation and let’s see what we can do.