Can a Victim Advocate Help Get Charges Dismissed?

If you have any questions about this or if you're being charged with a crime, feel free to call us at 210-405-6410 or click here to schedule a free consultation.

Click the link below to receive 5 Things You Should Do If You've Been Arrested:
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You want the case dismissed, but someone keeps telling you to “call the victim advocate.” Before you make that call, you need to understand a hard truth about criminal charges: the State brings the case, and the prosecutor decides whether it gets dismissed. That can feel frustrating when you’re the person listed as the victim, especially if you just want the situation to end and life to get back to normal.

I walk through what your role actually is in a criminal case. Even if you reported the incident, you’re typically a witness, and you usually don’t have to talk to anyone about the facts unless you’re subpoenaed. That distinction matters, because extra conversations can create more statements, more consistency, and a stronger path to trial for the district attorney’s office.

Then we get specific about the victim advocate. A victim advocate works for the district attorney’s office, not for you, and their job often includes keeping you informed while also helping the prosecution get ready for court. If you want dismissal, I explain why talking to the defense attorney first is often the smarter move, what options might exist like an affidavit of non-prosecution, and what to avoid if you do speak with a victim advocate, including re-telling the story or going in person just to “talk.” If you find this helpful, subscribe, share it with someone who needs it, and leave a review so more people can find clear answers.

If you have any questions about this or if you're being charged with a crime, feel free to call us at 210-405-6410 or click here to schedule a free consultation.

Click the link below to receive 4 Things You Should Do If You've Been Arrested:
https://bit.ly/3tDOVbt

If you have any questions about this or if you're being charged with a crime, feel free to call us at 210-405-6410 or click here to schedule a free consultation.

Click the link below to receive 4 Things You Should Do If You've Been Arrested:
https://bit.ly/3tDOVbtAdvertisement

Sean Henricksen Law Firm

sean@seanhenricksen.com

210-405-6410

106 S. St. Mary's St., Ste 445

San Antonio, Texas 78205

www.seanhenricksen.com

Transcript

Welcome And Free Resources

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi, and welcome back to another episode of What to Expect When You've Been Arrested. This is your host, Sean Hendrickson, from the Sean Hendrickson Law Firm, where we help good people like you avoid the devastating consequences of criminal charges. Today we're going to be talking about whether or not you should talk with the victim's advocate if you're the victim on a case and you want the case dismissed. Before we get to that, I do have a free download for you. It's five things you should be doing right now if you've been arrested. If you look down in the show notes, there's a link and we can send that right out to you. I also have a link down there to schedule a free consultation with me, either in person or over the phone. And I highly recommend that you do that if you're being charged with a crime in the San Antonio area. I'd be happy to sit down with you, answer any questions that you have, let you know what to expect, and let you know how we may be able to help you out.

Your Role As A Witness

SPEAKER_00 0:56

If you're the victim in criminal case, you may have heard or been told that you should contact the victim advocate. But before letting you know what the best route is to move forward, I want to talk about what your role is and also who the victim advocate is and what their role is. If you're the victim on a criminal case, your role is that you are a witness. That means that if this case were to go to trial, the state's going to call you as a witness to testify against the defendant. As a witness, you don't have any obligation at all to talk with anybody, including the district attorney's office or the defense attorney, or to show up to court, or really anything else. You don't have any obligation at all unless they subpoena you. And if they do subpoena you, that means you're obligated to show up to court to testify, but you still don't really have to talk with anybody, you know, about the prosecutor or anything else before showing up to testify. You don't have to have those conversations if you don't want

What A Victim Advocate Does

SPEAKER_00 1:59

to. Now, the victim advocate is actually an employee for the district attorney's office. And ideally, they're going to have a couple of different roles. One of those is to get you in contact with you, to let you know what resources they may have that they can put you in contact with. And the second is basically to be a liaison between you and the prosecutor to stay in contact with you, let you know what's going on with the case, and usually to try and get you on their side and prepared for trial. What's important to understand though is that they're not really an advocate for you unless you want the same thing with the district attorney's offices, which is a conviction. If you want the case dismissed, then they're not going to advocate that for you. What I hear a lot of times is that a victim will reach out to the victim advocate, let them know that they can't want the case dismissed. And generally the victim advocate is going to tell them it doesn't matter what you want. It's the state who's bringing the charges against the defendant, and ultimately it's up to the prosecutor to decide what to do on the case. You really have no say. And technically it's true. It is the state who's bringing the case against the defendant, and it is up to the prosecutor to decide whether or not to dismiss the case.

How Dismissals Become More Likely

SPEAKER_00 3:18

But what they're not telling you is that if you're the victim on the case and you want the case dismissed, there are things that you can do that make it much more likely that the case will get dismissed. What I really recommend people do if they want the case dismissed and they're in that position is to reach out to the defense attorney. The defense attorney is generally trying to get a dismissal on the case or some type of good outcome on the case. And they should know what's working in that county right now that makes it more likely that that case is going to get dismissed. That may be filing an affidavit of non-prosecution. Maybe it is reaching out to the victim advocate to let them know that you want the case dismissed, or maybe it's just remaining silent and not having any contact at all. Or it could be something else. But you want to reach out to the defense attorney. And generally, the more contact you have with the victim advocate, the better it's going to be for the state. The more contact you have with the defense attorney, generally the better that's going to work out for the defendant and the more likely that it is that the case is going to be dismissed. Now, it doesn't mean the entire case rests on you because even without the victim, in some cases, the state's still going to be able to prove up the case. So it's not a guarantee that the case is going to get dismissed, but it does make it more likely to happen.

What To Avoid Saying Or Doing

SPEAKER_00 4:43

If you do decide to reach out to the victim advocate, there are some things that you do want to watch out for if you want the case dismissed. One of those is not to really discuss the case at all. A lot of times when you talk with the victim advocate, they're going to try and get you to go over the case so that you're repeating the same thing that you told the police, essentially, that this person assaulted you or whatever else. And the more consistent your story is, again, the better it's going to be for the district attorney's office and the less likely it is that your case gets dismissed. The second thing is that if they tell you they need you to come down and tell them this in person, this is a trap. They are trying to get you to come down so that they can make it easier to subpoena you or to again get you to kind of confirm what you told the police or to persuade you to move forward with prosecuting this case. In reality, again, you don't have any obligation to do anything. The only thing that they need to know is that you want the case dismissed. And maybe if there's a no contact order that you want the no contact order changed. Aside from that, they don't really need to know any other information like what happened or have you restated anything or anything like that. I

Quick Closing And How To Reach Us

SPEAKER_00 6:04

hope this was helpful for you. If you do have any questions, please feel free to give me a call at 210-405-6410. Or again, you can click on that link down in the show notes to schedule a free consultation with me. I'll be happy to discuss your case with you and let you know how we can help you out. I hope that you have a great day.