LogFAQs > #986121689

suchiuomizu posted...

That's the thing though. It is not up to him to pres charges. The process is the victim reports a crime to the police and after investigation the prosecutor is the one who decides whether or not to press charges. They prefer the victim (or family of victim, if the victim is dead) to agree, but it is not necessary. And in this case it was not like it was private event, the relevant officials did not need a report to be aware of it.

I think that another factor is how big of an offense it is. Slapping someone in the face is a relatively minor assault and battery charge, right? There's no way it's a felony. Prosecutors in California must be overworked, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's official policy that they never press charges on misdemeanors unless the victim wants to.