Q: Hello. Why did my boyfriend get arrested when he never touched me. We were just yelling at each other?
We were on his boat. Sadly quite drunk. I went to take a rest.When he went to wake me I apparently started screaming. I do not remember any of this. I know for a fact he DID NOT touch me. He never has. Now I can have contact with him, had to move out ,he is the sole provider, I am unemployed. Why can I not just go to the station and say I'm not pressing charges?? How can this be legal please help. Thank you.
A:
Although I am sympathetic with your unhappy situation and description of what happened, I am quite sure that the police in Stuart do not arrest people without probable cause to believe they committed some serious crime.
I am also quite sure that you are not telling us the whole truth about what actually here. Why?
Because it is obvious that much time has passed since the incident; otherwise you would not be complaining about not being able to have any contact with him nor complaining about having to move out of his place and being unemployed to boot.
However, I will still try to answer your legal question: The reason why you cannot "just go down to the station and say you are not pressing charges" is because you already "pressed charges" when you filed the complaint. FYI, whenever a crime is committed Florida law assumes there is a risk of some injury to the general public--which gives the police and state attorney all the jurisdiction they need to take over your complaint and run with it. In other words, you are no longer the complainant; the State of Florida is. You are now only (the main) witness.
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