Q: Spouse/victim domestic assualt. Can I refuse to work with PO and claim spousal privilege? Will they have to drop charges
I was the only one to speak with the cop. Didn't write statement but signed complaint. Cop saw a couple scratches on my hand but that was it. I told him I was physically restrained while my husband tried taking my phone out of my hands and that's how I got the scratches. I'm not sure what he ended up writing down. This would be my husband first "official" offense.
A: Your husband needs a criminal defense attorney and he needs one right away. The sooner he hire an attorney, the sooner that attorney can tell him what his best options are.
A:
Your husband needs a lawyer.
You don't have to speak to anyone you don't want to speak to, but............
It is not your charge to proceed with or to drop. The prosecutors get to decide that. By prosecutors, I mean the County State's Attorney's Office for whichever county where this incident supposedly happened. You can't make the State's Attorney's Office drop the charges if they don't want to.
While you don't have to talk to anyone you don't want to talk to, including police officers or prosecutors, it's possible that you could get served with a subpoena. A subpoena is a court order directing you to go to a particular courtroom (unless it's a Grand Jury subpoena) on a specific date or time. If you're served with a subpoena, you have to appear. It's not optional. It is contempt of court, punishable by fine and/or jail to willfully refuse to obey a court order.
Once you're there, you could be called as a witness by either side. You can be forced to answer questions under oath about what happened, and, unless you believe you are going to incriminate yourself, you must answer the questions truthfully.
If you are served with a subpoena, and you're needing advice about how to handle answering questions or whether you have a right to refuse to answer questions, you have every right to get a lawyer yourself. That lawyer must be someone other than your husband's lawyer (or lawyer in the same law firm).
I hope this helps.
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