What If Your Accuser Refuses to Testify?

Feel like you’re being tried in a kangaroo court? Has someone falsely accused you of committing a serious crime and then disappeared before you have a chance to defend yourself in court? It happens more often than you think. You get accused by someone in a “he said she said” situation of committing a serious crime. That person gives a statement to the police or provides testimony in a preliminary hearing against you. Then they disappear! And the District Attorney suddenly says your accuser is “unavailable” for trial.

An inexperienced defense attorney might not know that you have a Constitutional right to confront your accusers in court. Without a chance to have a jury evaluate your accuser’s statements for themselves you might find yourself in jail for a long time. An experienced defense attorney however would know that a District Attorney has to try a little harder than simply saying “they’re gone!” For instance, a District Attorney is required to subpoena witnesses, and even put out warrants for their arrest if they refuse to testify and instead try to disappear. Even if they flee to another country like Mexico, a District Attorney has a duty to use things like U-Visas to get those witnesses back! A U-Visa is a temporary visa that a state or federal official can grant to a witness who has vital knowledge of a crime being prosecuted in the USA.

Before you get railroaded in court by a system that seems stacked against you, make sure you have an experienced attorney on your side to hold the government accountable!