Legal Question in Criminal Law in California
subject
if a husband and wife have fight on the way home from work wife gets out of the car at the first apportunity, goes to a house, calls police tells them that her husband threaten to run her over because he wants her to die.police arrest husband,and charge him with kidnapping and terroist threats after a few days wife tells da that she does not want to persue the matter any longer and will not testifi.the da refuses to drop the case. can the husband still be found guilty even though there was no phyical harm to her and the acussations are just hearsay
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: subject
Yes. Decisions about which cases to pursue and which to drop are made by the prosecutor, not the victims. And thought the wife may be unwilling to testify, she will be subpoenaed and forced to do so.
Many abusive husbands so intimidate their wives that they are unwilling to testify for fear of what will their husbands will do to them. DAs and courts are well aware of this fact and they do not allow these men get away with abusing their wives by threatening further abuse.
Re: subject
There actually are consequences to your actions. The DA can and will prosecute. Most DA offices have stern policies requiring prosecution once a charge has been made. Most abused wives recant and beg to drop the charges "because he loves me", "he didn't mean it", etc. You have zero credibility with the DA when saying you didn't mean it.
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