Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Pressing Charges

I was sexually assaulted by a family friend. I reported the incident to the police. At the interview with the detective I said I did not want press charges against the suspect or make a pretext phone call. I had been degraded and coerced by my spouse not to press charges because the suspect had been his good friend. I decided three hours after the interview that I wanted to do the pretext call the detective had asked me to do so I called the detective to aks him if I could still do the call. The detective was dismissive of me saying ''what made you change your mind? I am busy with another case now'' and also very harsh and told me to call him back the next week. Again when I spoke to the detective he seemed to shun me and he was busy with another case again so I felt I had no choice but to let him handle to case how he wanted to. Is there a law in California that allows a person who reports a crime to decide to press charges if they intially declined to? The suspect did in fact confess to the acts he committed against me but the report was written in such a way that the DA said there was not enough evidence. Is there a way to get the DA to review the case a second time with the audio tapes as well? Thank you.


Asked on 1/05/04, 3:58 pm

2 Answers from Attorneys
Terry A. Nelson Nelson & Lawless

Re: Pressing Charges

You are going to have to convince the police and DA you won't change your mind again. Keep at it.

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Answered on 1/05/04, 4:40 pm
Lyle Johnson Bedi and Johnson Attorneys at Law

Re: Pressing Charges

The district attorney determines whether or not to file a criminal complaint. Your statement that you did not want to file charges indicated a lack of interest in following through with the case.

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Answered on 1/06/04, 9:00 pm


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