Legal Question in Criminal Law in Indiana

I don't know who to contact or what to do from here but we are not getting anywhere with our local police department or the Lake County Prosecutor. On November 6, 2012 my daughter who is 18 came in the door at home and was screaming and crying that she had been assaulted by another girl down the street from our house. I called 911 and told the dispatcher I needed officers right away at my residence because my daughter had been attacked. I live about 2 min. tops from the police station and it took the police quite some time to arrive. They came down the street just driving normal and in no hurry. When we started explaining what happened they quickly turned it on my daughter making her feel like she was the suspect and not the victim. They treated the whole situation very bad. There were 3 officers here and they all sat here and questioned my daughter instead of sending someone down the street right away to see if this girl was still there. After questioning my daughter about what happened they then finally went down to where the incident happened and talked to the kid that lived there and some other kids that were there also. They all denied that it happened and denied that the girl that assaulted her was even there. The police never came back and told us what was happening we had to call the police department and they then told us that they still had to speak to the suspect about the incident. They told my daughter to write a statement of what happened and bring it to the police department which we did that night on our way to the ER for my daughter to get treated for her injury's at which time the officer that took her written statement said your story does not add up with what the people at the other house said happened basically saying my daughter was lying but we have facebook conversations with the kid that lives at the residence confirming that this girl was there at his house and that the assault happened but he did not witness it. All the messages we have confirm that they lied to the police that night. We took these conversations to the police department and talked to the captain the next day and he stated that they still did not contact the suspect and that when they did they would wrap up the report and we could then pick up the report. He also advised us to go get a restraining order which we did. He said that when they finished their investigation that they would turn it all over to the prosecutor to determine whether charges would be filed but when we picked up the police report it said in the report that my daughter would have to pursue the charges if she wanted something done. Also in the police report it showed what the suspect said and there was no answer to the night in question. Her answer had nothing to do with that night. The police didn't even make contact with the suspect til almost a week later. When we went to court for the restraining order the suspect denied that she did anything and denied even being at the place the incident took place. We then showed the judge the facebook messages that said she was there and she still lied and said she wasn't there. The judge ordered the protection order and then we went to the Lake County Prosecutors office to pursue charges. We left all the evidence we had which was the police report, my daughter's statement, hospital papers, photos, and facebook messages. The prosecutor then got back to my daughter and said that he needed to speak to Cedar Lake Police about the incident because he did not understand why we were the ones pursuing charges and not the police department. Then some days went by and my daughter called him back because he hadn't contacted her and he said they weren't going to be able to do anything because nobody witnessed the attack. This is awful. I don't understand how someone can just put their hands on someone and get away with it because there wasn't a witness and because the suspect says they were not there. There was someone there that came out of the house after the attack happened but it is the best friend of the suspect and she is not going to step up and go against her friend. You are always told that the police are there to serve and protect and I am beginning to doubt that. We went and spoke to the Captain at the police station about how things were handled and about what was in the police report and he agreed that things were not handled properly. He said that they would re question the suspect about what happened which they did and he said they did a video tape interview in which she denied everything but he said that when they brought up that they had facebook messages showing that she was at the house where it all took place she immediately ended the interview and would not talk anymore about it. She then left the police station. After the suspect was question the 2nd time she then sent facebook messages to my daughter�s boyfriend trying to blackmail him into getting us to back off with all this and drop it all or she was going to go to the police and tell them that my daughter�s boyfriend was dealing drugs in the past. The Captain said they tried to make contact with the other people that may have witnessed the attack and he said none of them would come and give statements. So he says there is nothing they can do and that he is not closing the case but there is nothing further they can do unless there is someone that comes forward that witnessed it. I want to know if we have any kind of case here against the girl that did this and the police station for mishandling the whole situation. I cannot believe that I was told by the police department that as long as no one witness�s a situation like this that you can�t get in trouble for it. That is so wrong that you can go and put your hands on someone as long as no one sees it is ok. Please let me know if we have anything to go on here.

1 Answer from Attorneys

Related Questions & Answers

More Criminal Law questions and answers in Indiana

Looking for something else?