Legal Question in Criminal Law in District of Columbia

Dismissal and acquittal are not the same thing. An acquittal is a decision on the merits, in which the trier of fact (either a jury or a judge) finds that the prosecutor did not prove the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. When a case is dismissed, there is no decision on the merits.

Ordinarily, prosecutors are free to re-file a case that has been dismissed at any time until the statute of limitations runs out. They can't do that after an acquittal, since re-trying someone who has been acquitted would be double jeopardy. But note that I said "ordinarily." There may be reasons why your case can't be re-filed. Even if it can, there may be good reason to doubt that the prosecutor will make a second attempt. If you had a lawyer in this case, he or she should be able to give you a better sense of what might happen in the future.

Good luck.