This week, our office received the news every defense attorney loves to see, a charge against a client was dismissed by the prosecutor.
How does a criminal charge get dismissed?
The short answer, either the Court dismisses after a request by the defense, or the prosecutor decides to dismiss on their own. I am often asked to contact the prosecutor and request that a charge be dismissed. Unfortunately, it is not as easy as a simple phone call. A prosecutor files a case because they believe that a crime has been committed. In order to convince them to dismiss, you have to present material that they were not aware of that shows them they do not have a good case and that they will not be likely to win a conviction at trial. Doing this takes hard work, the type of stuff that does not show up on legal TV shows, digging for evidence, witnesses, material that supports your client’s claim that they are not guilty.
The other way a case gets dismissed is for the defense files a motion, which is a request to the judge to dismiss the charges without a trial. Judges rarely dismiss before trial; to win a motion to dismiss you have to show that the prosecution does not have enough to convince a jury to convict, without considering what the defense has. This is a high standard, and it takes a lot of work to get enough to meet it. All the prosecutor has to show to defeat your motion is that there is enough evidence for a jury to possibly convict your client. It is far lower than the beyond a reasonable doubt standard that they need to meet to win a jury trial.
Either way, dismissals are rarely granted, and hard earned.
Ed