Q: How to drop I'm misdemeanor domestic battery charge without getting the victim charged for not showing up to court
so my girlfriend in my family got into a bit of an argument over something ridiculous as a hamburger and it ended up with my brother pushing my girlfriend and my girlfriend's mother calling the cops even though her mother was not in the house and didn't know really what was going on my brother ended up getting arrested and charges do misdemeanor domestic battery charges in my girlfriend wants to drop the charges and what we've been told is if she doesn't show up to court then the case can get dropped if she gets subpoenaed not to show up either but if she'd get subpoenaed in doesn't show up would she get charged for a small domestic battery case like this
A:
Well, the best way to handle it is to tell the prosecutors you don't want to proceed and why.
If you don't receive a subpoena to appear in court, you have no obligation to appear in court.
If you receive a subpoena, you are absolutely obligated to appear at the courtroom. Anyone who tells you that you can ignore a subpoena should not be listened to. They aren't going to do your jail time for you.
A subpoena is a court order to appear in court at a specific place, date, and time. They cannot be ignored. Failure to obey the terms of the subpoena can lead to a judge deciding that you are in contempt of court. That can mean a warrant for your arrest, a conviction, a fine, and yes............ jail.
Then you'll need a lawyer.
If you believe for some reason that the terms of the subpoena for which you have been served are not lawful, then what you need to do is not ignore the subpoena, but have a lawyer get involved to request the judge cancel the subpoena. We call is a Motion to Quash the Subpoena.
Hope this helps.
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