Legal Question in Criminal Law in Texas

If you want to help him, then talk with the lawyer representing him on the motion to revoke probation. He violated probation not only by assaulting you but also by drinking while on probation. You cannot retract your statement - it is made. You cannot drop charges - that is done and it was not really up to you. You can help by telling the court the efforts that he is making to rehabilitate himself. I will tell you that if you go over the top in defending him - say he didn't do it, it will never happen again, etc., then no one will believe you. You say he has alcoholism and that is probably true. What most courts want is for people to be safe to the community. If he is really working hard to "fix" himself, then it is in the best interest of the community to keep him on probation - on a leash so to speak - while he continues to work on his issues.

I don't think it's realistic for either of you to hope that this is just all going to go away. At this point, it's pretty much guaranteed that's not going to happen. In any case, it sounds like the assault case is all over and done with at this point, and no, it will definitely not do any good to start trying to take back your statement now. Ms. Henley's right--almost certainly, with a DWI and a drunken assault, alcoholism is the real problem here, and I think it's likely that both his probation officer and the court will recognize that. The problem with situations like these is often that it really, really is true that you cannot force someone to admit that they have a problem like alcoholism, much less force them into treatment if they're not going to give it a real shot. It just doesn't work, and honestly, the criminal justice sysyem's attempts to force the issue are usually not too successful. That all too easily turns into "That jerk judge doesn't know what the hell he's talking about, and there's nothing wrong with me, but I guess if I've got to do their stupid AA meetings for a few months to stay out of jail, well, whatever. I can fake it for that long."

But maybe seeing that he's about to lose his family has been enough of a shock to him that he's now at a point of being truly ready to seek treatment. If so, he needs to go ahead and do that without any more prompting from the criminal justice system. Make sure before he starts a treatment program, though, that it's one that will be acceptable to the court--sometimes, certain ones are not or might be iffy. If it appears that he's genuinely trying to get help, and not just to avoid going to jail, it increases the chances that the court will see a reason NOT to send him to jail, and will hopefully reward his initiative by modifying and/or extending the probation instead of revoking him. Good luck.