Judge Sentences Domestic Violence Victim to Jail [tr]

People ^ | 10/08/2015 | Tara Fowler

[sparklite2]

Judge Sentences Domestic Violence Victim to Jail for Not Showing Up at Her Alleged Abuser's Trial

But the victim explained to the judge that she wanted the charges against her alleged abuser dropped because the last time he'd been jailed, he'd been unable to pay her child support and she'd ended up homeless. So when she was subpoenaed, she did not show up because she did not want the man to be convicted.

Judge Collins, however, found the woman to be in contempt of court and sentenced her to three days in jail. "You were required to be here by a court order," Collins says in the video. "You disobeyed a court order, knowing that this was not going to turn out well for the state."

The woman begs for her to show mercy as she's handcuffed and taken into custody. "Judge, I'll do anything…. I have a 1-year-old son and I'm trying to take care of him by myself. I'm begging you, please, please don't," she says.

But Collins sentenced her to jail anyways.

[Talisker]

Excellent post, I agree completely (and I don’t often say that).

[terycarl]

a subpoena is just that....an ORDER to appear.

[sparklite2]

It is my understanding that, due to too many instances of domestic abuse victims electing to not press charges after the abuser is arrested, it is common practice for police to require the victim to press charges before they will arrest and jail the offender. It’s a waste of taxpayer money to imprison someone only to have the accuser change his/her mind and refuse to prosecute.

[PAR35]

Crossreferencing to the earlier thread:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3346198/posts

[PAR35]

Simple solution would be if she refuses to prosecute, the cops won’t respond to any more calls to that location.

[kiryandil]

Her blurting it out on the stand would have had zero impact on sentencing. I don’t know how serious the “abuse” was, but apparently she didn’t consider him enough of a threat that she wanted him incarcerated. They used to allow “victims” to decide whether they wanted it to go to court, based on what was best for their families. Then the misguided feminist do-gooders and the self-seeking lawyers passed laws to take the decision out of the hands of those involved, and put it in the hands of the system which has it’s own priorities.

It's sad that many FReepers don't understand the nature of the money-sucking machine that the "justice" system has become, nor the venal motivations of tax-ticks like "judge" Collins here.