Legal Question in Criminal Law in Virginia

That there are at least enough relevant facts to support the claim that the crime charged (assault and battery)was in fact committed by the persons or individual identified as having committed it. (It should be born

in mind, however, that probable cause is a far lower standard required to arrest

a person than the standard required to convict such a person of a crime, namely beyond reasonable doubt. And, because the cops may have sufficient evidence for the former, ie., to arrest, that in no way implies that they necessarily have sufficient evidence for the latter, i.e, to convict.)

Just to add to what Mr. Hendrickson wrote, it can often come as a shock to people when they learn that they can actually be charged with a crime and even arrested based on the unsupported allegations of one single person, yet this is a common occurance in Virginia Courts. Often times even when the police decide not to pursue charges, the complainant can go to a magistrate on his/her own and obtain an arrest warrant. Getting a conviction is whole different matter, and in most cases if if is just one person's word against another's, the result is a Not Guilty verdict at trial.