Hello,

I am very worried and I need to ask this question to someone who will actually know the answer...

May 1st I was involved in a domestic violence situation... I was part of a lesbian relationship... My "ex gf" at the time found a pic of my new girlfriend and started hitting me and throwing my stuff out of the apartment we share...

To give a little history I was already packing and moving to Colorado and my move date was supposed to be that Friday... We were currently living in Ohio...

Well she wouldn't stop hitting me and she tried to steal my phone and break it... so I took her phone and I locked myself in the bathroom and called 911... I needed her out of the apartment so I could pack without getting my stuff thrown out and get hit...

Well the cops came she admitted to them that she hurt me and she was arrested... I told the cops then that I didn't really want her arrested I just wanted her to not be at the apartment for 24 hours and specifically told the cops that I could not be here to press charges or anything because I was moving to CO that Friday... he said that I wouldn't be the one pressing charges then and all he needed was a witness statement and that they had to arrest her because she admitted to hitting me and they would get in trouble for not doing anything...


Well I packed up all my stuff and the next day decided to leave for CO instead of Friday...

Well 1 week later I get a letter in the mail - addressed to my old address and forwarded to my new one in CO saying I had to make a mandatory appearance in court on May 29 @ 8:30 am...

I went to the website that was on the paper and looked up the case and she is now pleading not guilty... after she admitted to the cops that she hit me...

Well I called the court because there is no way for me to even get out to OH at this point and they were no help as to what I should do... gave me the cops #... I called them and left a vml on the officer who arrested my ex girlfriend voicemail... he never called me back


Now I am worried that I am going to get a bench warrant if I do not show up... but what I do not understand is why I have to show up when I told them that I couldn't and they said that it was fine that I wasn't going to have to go to court...


Will I get in trouble if I do not show up even though I am not the guilty one and the charges are not against me?

She admitted to the crime so it should have been as the cops said. Now, she wants a court trial. You do have to appear. She probably thinks that since you are in Colorado, you won't and she will go free. She may take the plea bargian before the trial begins if she knows you are coming. Let her find out through mutual friends that you wouldn't miss it for the world. Force her hand and put her on the hot seat. If found guilty in the trial, she will face more jail time and fines. If she takes the plea, they will go softer on her.

It is pre-trial... gee I'm so confused... my friends keep saying if I don't show up I'm going to have a warrant out for my arrest?

You will have a warrant. When the court tells you that you have to show up for something, you better make sure your there. Magprob gave you the best advice here. She chose to plead not guilty and take it to trial with the hopes that you won't show up. If your not there she would technically win so to speak. Definetely get the word out that you will most definetely be there, see what she does with that. Good luck.

I'm not sure I agree with the previous posts. I have never heard of someone having a bench warrant issued for not showing up to help the prosecution. This happens every day in this country. More than likely the charges will get dropped or severely reduced if you don't show however you said you didn't want to press charges anyway. Also, the cops have to arrest someone in domestic violence calls. Some places they can just separate the two people. I, for one, want to say I am both surprised and happy to hear of your situation being taken seriously. About 10 yr ago I went through something similar with my same sex partner having hit me. Upon calling the police... they stated they would have to arrest both of us or neither. Since we had children in the home we opted for nothing... after police left, violence started again. We got through the night and ended things but the point that the police wouldn't do anything as we were two women really appalled me. I myself would contact an attorney from Ohio. Many offer free consultations. Ask. If nothing else, I would not attend if you are really stuck. Write a letter to the court and explain things. Even if a bench warrant is issued, it isn't that difficult to get taken care of... I would side with the odds of nothing happening.

I have had several requests by the court for me to show up for another case where someone broke into my house. Had other court dates... couldn't be there. Nothing happened. This is in Columbus, Ohio. The young man who did this probably got a lighter sentence but nothing happened to me. Cathy

First, I am not a lawyer and I don't know the laws in Ohio, much less in any state. However, this is what I understand to be the law in Illinois. There has to be a witness to any crime. If there is no witness, then most likely the person will get off free. Her lawyer most likely advised her to plead not guilty because of the fact that you are no longer in Ohio and would find it difficult to get back. They really don't want you to show up. From the sounds of it, you were issued a subpoena, which is a court issued document. I know you don't want to punish this person, much less see this person again. However, if I were you, I would do whatever I could to get back to Ohio, no matter what the inconvenience. You have to protect yourself, as anyone who is found to be disobeying of any court would be issued an arrest warrant, no matter who is guilty of the actual crime. At this point, the domestic battery is not the issue. What is at issue is the fact that you would be ignoring a court's directive. Hope this helps. By the way, I have been told that police officers don't know the law; only a lawyer knows the law and can defend you. Ignore what this officer told you and start driving to Ohio.

Ok, the new laws on domestic violence is very new and does not work like most other crimes. First in most states, if the police officer sees evidence of domestic violence, they have to arrest someone, if they don't, they have to do a very long report as to why, because if there was domestic violence and they don't arrest someone, and they do it again after officers leave the officer can actually be held liable for not arrested the bad guy.
So you are seeing a lot more officers arresting people.

And no the victim does not have to press any charges, and can even say nothing happened, the officer still has to arrest.

Her confession to the officers may be able to be used unless her attorney got the confession thrown out because she confessed before she was read her rights. If they prove she was the suspect at the time she confessed.

So now her attorney told her to plead not guilty, for many reason, they have to prove the crime, her confession without other evidence will not convict. So they need you as the witness. What you have is a witness appearce order, and you can be found in contempt if you don't show up,

*** Yes they can, most courts never do, most will just dismiss the case if you don't show up. But you need to hire an attoreny to call them and let them know you are not going to appear, they can of course force you to appear.

When I was a officer I would say about 3/4 of all our witnesses never showed up and the bad guyes were just released.