[WindOracle]

Then where is the justice in THIS scenario, which happened to a close friend of mine who is now sitting in Jefferson City Missouri in prison.

A couple years ago he dated this girl. She kept pressuring him about getting married, which he was not REALLY anxious to do quickly as he had just gotten a divorce 6 months earlier. She gets mad one day, and goes to the police department claiming he raped her. They arrest him, and three days later she comes sobbing into the sheriffs office admitting she lied and that he never raped her, and why she had told them what she did.

Ya think they dropped the charges? What they DID was tell her "You can change your story now if you want to, but be aware that charges of filing a false report will be leveled at you". Well, as I said, he is sitting in Jeff City now, so you know the outcome of that choice.

The only PHYSICAL evidence of any altercation was a bruised wrist she had from a fight that witnesses saw her get into at a local bar two nites before she made her report.

[Mad Dawg]

It seems to me that this post and the general argument lumps together police, deputies, prosecutors, and judges. Once I arrest somebody, from then on it's out of my hands. The Commonwealth attorney may decide I was a dope or not. And if he decides to prosecute, the judge and jury have a role to play.

But if after I arrest somebody new evidence comes to light and the commonwealth attorney suppresses it, I might not even know that happened.

You use the word "they". Maybe a few nouns would clarify things. WHO told her what would happen if she changed her story?