Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: subpena to appear as a witness for criminal trail

The police are always able to tell where a call is coming from, so that they know where to go if there is an emergency and the caller can't talk about it. The police are free to make legitimate use of this information unless you have an agreement with them to be a confidential informant. Police seldom make such agreements and only do so under limited circumstances.

The defendant is entitled to confront the witnesses against him at trial and is entitled to compel witnesses to come to court and testify against their will.

If you feel that testifying will endanger your safety or fear some other form of retaliation, you can discuss this with the prosecutor's office. Alternatively, you can try to hire a lawyer to see if there is any way you can avoid testifying. But you need to take some sort of action before the trial; ignoring the subpoena is extremely unwise.

Unless there is reason to fear retaliation, you should go testify whether you like it or not. If you disobey the trial subpoena, you will find yourself in the courtroom soon enough but under much less pleasant circumstances.