Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

If you have text messages and if you are insisting upon an arrest you ought to give the messages to the police. Before you do so I would strongly recommend that you meet with a criminal defense attorney and discuss the possible consequences of an arrest.

Can you? Yes.

Having said that, a word of caution: if you make an arrest for a felony, you have to be sure a felony was in fact committed. Of you're wrong, you expose yourself to liability for false arrest.

Instead, you may want to report this to the police. Before you do, a consultation with a good local criminal defense attorney may be a good idea. Why? Because there are laws in place regarding privacy and you need to make sure you wouldn't be admitting to a crime by telling them how you gathered evidence.