What happens if victim doesnt show up

Here are three major reasons why a domestic violence victim might be refusing to testify:. If you are in need of legal services from a qualified criminal defense attorney, give Leyba Defense a call today.

Here at Leyba Defense, expert criminal defense attorney, Matthew Leyba, has spent more than a decade defending his clients from criminal defense charges.

No matter what kind of criminal charges you find yourself facing, contact Leyba Defense to get the expert legal help that you deserve. Please leave this field empty. The answer is still yes, for a variety of reasons, which I'll explain below. First and foremost, under Colorado law, if a prosecutor believes they can prove a prima facie case, they are not allowed to dismiss or plea a domestic violence charge to a non-domestic violence charge.

Simply because the victim no longer wishes to go forward does not mean the case can't be proven, and therefore, it's unlikely that the DA will dismiss the case simply because the victim no longer wishes to prosecute. Moreover, there are ways to compel the victims attendance in court, ie.

If the DA has the victim validly served and they do not appear in court, the DA can ask for a bench warrant for their arrest. While this is a drastic remedy and relatively uncommon, if they wist to pursue this route, they can and do. These types of hearings that don't involve testimony include: arraignments probable cause conferences pretrial conferences certain motions and evidentiary hearings settlement conferences docket conferences calendar conferences sentencings Under the Sixth Amendment , you have a Constitutional right of "confrontation.

If the prosecution cannot produce the witness, then you would be denied this right, and the judge usually has two choices: Give the prosecution more time and a second chance to get them there Your CSC charges must be dismissed usually "without prejudice," meaning you could still be re-charged with CSC in the future.

Exceptions to the Confrontation Clause The Supreme Court, however, has an exception to the rule that the alleged victim must be present for you to question them. Alleged Victim or Witness Must be "Unavailable" : It seems the easiest thing for the prosecutor to do is to tell the alleged victim to not show-up at trial or give little to no effort to get them there, introduce their prior testimonial statements where they claim you committed CSC, and thereby avoid your right to confront them and risk the chance that you'll expose them as a liar.

These meaningful steps are called "due diligence," and a good CSC lawyer would invoke the case of People v. Dye and argue to the judge that the prosecution should have to show their due diligence at a special hearing requiring them and the police to testify about their efforts to get the alleged CSC victim into court.

This topic is very complicated and could and does take up volumes in the law books. Read More. Name: Please enter your name. This isn't a valid phone number. Please enter your email address. This isn't a valid email address. Are you a new client? Yes, I am a potential new client No, I'm a current existing client I'm neither. Please make a selection. Are you currently under investigation? If there were witnesses to the incident, prosecutors may be able to prove their case with the witnesses.

Generally speaking, if a victim does not appear in Court for a Domestic Battery in a Courthouse or a County that is especially busy with criminal cases, the more likely it is that the prosecutors will drop and dismiss the case if the complaining witness does not appear in Court.

The decision about whether a Domestic Battery will be dropped and dismissed cannot be made by the Judge. However, the Judge can have great influence on whether the case will be dropped and dismissed or whether it will continue. If the prosecutor asks to continue a case when the complaining witness, or victim, does not appear in Court, the decision on whether to grant a continuance rests with the Judge.

If the Judge does not grant the continuance and the prosecutor needs the victim to prove their case, the prosecutor will have no choice but to drop and dismiss the case.

If you are charged with a Domestic Battery, it is very important that you talk to a criminal defense attorney that is experienced with Domestic Battery cases, and is familiar with the particular courthouse and courtroom that your case will be in.