QUESTION
How to drop charges of domestic battery and unlawful restraint against my boyfriend?
Asked on Sep 10th, 2013 on Criminal Law - Illinois
More details to this question:
My boyfriend and I got into an argument while driving. He hit me and I hit him back and that resulted in me having a black eye. Neighbors saw us and they called the police. The police came arrested him and I pressed charges. However at that time I was so emotionally unstable and I signed the papers without realizing what the charges were. He was charged with domestic battery and unlawful restraint. He wouldn't let me get out of the car although I was able to leave. We had had situations like this before in which he holds my arm but it never ended in this. The problem is he admitted to hitting me and signed a statement. Now we are trying to fix this but we find ourselves in a black hole. How would it be possible for him to come out clean from all of this? It was a one time argument and he had never done anything like this before. He does not deserve to go to jail over this. I feel terrible and I don't know how to help him. I'm willing to testify in his favor.
1 ANSWER
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Although you stated you would press charges, the people actually prosecuting the charges is the State's Attorney's Office. You can request to have the charges dismissed, but they only have to take that into consideration. It does not make them dismiss the charges.
You may be willing to testify in his favor, but you still have to tell the truth - that he hit you and you hit him back afterwards. If neighbors saw it happen, then there was an independent third party witness. There was also a confession. It would be very difficult to obtain a complete dismissal in this matter using any legitimate method.
Answered on Sep 16th, 2013 at 11:26 AM