Legal Question in Criminal Law in New York

I was attacked by my boyfriend's mother. The three of us were living together in his apartment. She made threats of paying someone to kill me, chased me around the house with a spray can which she tried to throw at me, at which point he and I locked ourselves in our room. She broke a hole in the door and appeared with a knife. Didn't come inside, just stood outside the door yelling obscenities and threatening to harm me. Police was called, she was arrested... I moved out and he and I broke up. It's been hard ending all contact with him so i've been calling him off and on (he never answered though, except twice)

I don't want to press charges against her. I want to leave this whole thing behind me. It's not worth it to me. I called the police because there was an imminent threat to me and I wanted her to face the consequences of my actions and so I could leave the house without fear. She's been given a DAT and has to appear in court on Monday to be arraigned. The DA's office told me I can request the judge to drop the charges if I appear on Monday.

My question is what can I say to the judge to convince him to drop these charges? And can I get into legal trouble for continuing to contact my ex (defendant's son)?

This is in NYC and we are all over the age of 21.


Asked on 8/09/12, 9:02 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Philip Katz Fink & Katz, PLLC

If you filed the complaint, you should not now go into court and say it wasn't true, so there are limited things you can do to end the case. It's not the judge, rather the DA, that determines if the case will be prosecuted, so I am not sure why the DA told you the judge makes the decision. All the DA has to do is withdraw the case and the judge no longer has the power to hear the case.

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Answered on 9/05/12, 7:17 pm


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