If you’re facing domestic violence charges brought against you by your spouse, you may be worried about how this will affect your job, your children and your future. You know that nothing that happened was enough to be considered domestic violence, and your spouse was just trying to make you look bad before going to court. You have proof that this wasn’t a domestic violence situation, and now your spouse is considering recanting the statements she made. Can your spouse actually drop domestic violence charges?
Sadly, the answer is no. Once the victim has made the claim, she is unable to recant the claim. Crimes are governed by the state, so the state can decide to press charges against you even if your spouse decides to take back her claim.
If you have to go to trial for the domestic abuse charge, then your spouse may need to admit that she falsified a claim during the trial. You can present your own evidence to show that no abuse took place in your home. In some cases, you can avoid trial altogether if your attorney works with the prosecution to show that the allegations made against you were false.
It may not seem fair that charges can’t be dropped, but once an alleged victim asks for them to be pressed against their alleged abuser, those charges are filed. It’s up to you to defend yourself with the help of your attorney. With the right defense, you can also show how far your spouse is willing to go to damage your name before your divorce.
Source: FindLaw, “Can the Victim Drop Domestic Violence Charges?,” accessed March 16, 2017
