Can Assault Charges Be Dropped In Texas?

Can assault charges be dropped in Texas? Here’s the loyalty answer for you. Yes and no. Sometimes, what people mean by dropping a case differs from another term. We often use it for essentially dropping a case, which is a dismissal. So, all assault cases can be dismissed. We achieve many dismissals in assault cases. 

But often, we hear somebody say the complaining witness, the victim in this case, wants to drop charges. Most district attorneys’ and prosecutors’ offices in Texas have what they call a no-drop policy on family member cases or all assault cases. But particularly in family member cases.

So what this means is that a person who’s the victim, say, a woman who got allegedly assaulted by her husband. She doesn’t have the power to go to the district attorney or the police and say. I want to drop charges, drop these charges. They’ll tell the person in that situation that we have a no-drop policy. You don’t have the power to drop this case. 

So, that’s a general policy for most district attorneys and prosecutors in Texas. But what often happens when we show the prosecutor we will fight this case. That we’re not rolling over, not pleading guilty, not accepting a plea bargain, give us a jury trial.

When the jury and the judge said, Prosecutor, bring your witnesses in and prove this case. Quite often, we get a dismissal at that point. We can have a much better chance of getting dismissed when the complaining witness says she does not want to prosecute. She wants to drop the case. She doesn’t want to come to testify. She doesn’t want the person to be convicted or go to jail.

So, even though they have this no-drop policy when the case comes up for a trial, we’re often able to get the case dismissed. So it’s gone and can ultimately be expunged from the person’s record. Generally, there’s a no-drop policy in Texas. But yes, cases can still be dropped or dismissed ultimately.

Summary

Dropping assault charges may seem hard. It is because people interpret withdrawing differently. It usually means case dismissal. Ending the lawsuit assault in Texas has a “no-drop policy,” especially in family or assault cases. However, this policy allows for flexibility. Things change when a defense attorney fights the issue instead of pleading guilty or granting a plea bargain. 

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