Maybe I am the only one that continues to hit my head against the brick wall as to this issue. I was licensed in 1985 and have been in private practice for almost that entire time period and over half of my practice has been family law. I took office as county attorney January 1, 2009 (I am allowed to keep my private practice and have done so.) The reason that I mention these facts is to show that I completely understand the dynamics of family law and how almost all truth is a matter of perspective in this area. I am used to clients who lie, change their minds, change their testimony, fight each other tooth and nail and then reconcile, and any other scenario you can imagine. I have dealt with family violence and all the complicated dynamics between the victim and the perpetrator, and I fully understand that victims are often not ready to end the relationship for various reasons. That still leaves me with the question of what to do with protective order applicants and family violence assault victims who may be cooperative at first and then change their minds/become uncooperative and even hostile/"recant." I realize that legally I have the ability to proceed without the complaining witness or to force the complaining witness to come to court by subpoena. In reality, because my assault victims are victims of misdemeanor assaults, in almost every case I do not have very much in the way of evidence outside of the victim's testimony. I have whatever the victim told the police officer at the time the officer arrived at the scene, and the usefulness of that is going to vary widely depending on how well the officer wrote his or her report. Often I have no evidence of any significant injury - if I am lucky the officer puts in his or her report that there were a few scratches or maybe some red marks. If I am really really lucky I might have some halfway decent photographs of those marks that you can actually see in the photos. Many times I have useless blurry photos. If I choose to proceed to trial, then barring a bad criminal record,the defendant (who usually doesn't make a statement to the police, or if he or she does it is exculpatory) is free to testify to his or her own version of events. If I force the victim to appear, then I can treat him or her as a hostile witness and cross him or her as to whatever he or she told the police. Of course, the victim can say that he or she was mad at the defendant and just lied to the cops to get the defendant in trouble. Or whatever other version the victim chooses to tell in court that exonerates the defendant. I can explain in voir dire and through experts or whatever all day long that family violence victims are afraid of the perpetrators so they change their testimony, etc., etc., but at the end of the day the case still stinks on ice. I also have to consider whether or not I want to spend my limited resources on this. This is also true of protective orders - we can do tons of work to get one drafted and served and get ready for a hearing and then the day before we get a call that says "never mind." I know that there is not one thing I can do to change how these victims are - they are only ready when they are ready. However, I have been searching for a more effective way to deal with this situation. Is there one? I have resorted to interviewing both family violence victims and protective order applicants extensively prior to filing anything. If they change their minds at the investigation stage, I close the file. If I find out that they are lying through their teeth (which does happen some), I close the file. If I file the assault and then the victim shows up to do a non-prosecution affidavit or the defense lawyer provides one to me, I make sure that the victim assistance coordinator determines the "voluntariness" of that affidavit to the best of her ability. I also won't usually dismiss the assault case until the defendant pays the court costs and takes an anger management class (better than nothing). If I ever get a case that I believe has enough evidence outside the victim's testimony to go forward, I will seriously consider doing it. Has anyone else come up with anything better?

Be careful about rquiring the payment of court costs for a dismissal. It cannot be done.

Collection of costs of court in a dismissed case is illegal per CCP Chapter 102. All of the costs in that chapter are payable "upon conviction". "Conviction" includes deferred adjudication. Some counties may do it, but it is not proper to do so.

We are not "requiring" court costs for a dismissal. As part of a compromise agreement, we ask for anger management class to be completed and for payment of court costs. If and when these are successfully completed, the case is dismissed.

Ken is correct; if the case ends in dismissal, you cannot collect any court costs outside those specifically authorized by statute (esp. CCP Ch. 102).

I am having similar problems. What I have decided to do is move forward without the victim. I purchased cameras for the officers, and require pics. I encourage EMS call, and their findings are helpful. I am then going to appeal to the sense of wasting officer time, resources etc to see if a conviction will flow. It's a new thing for me, but I don't know what else to do.

P.S. I have NO problem filing false report charges on someone who reports, signs a statement, and later recants.

Concerning protective orders, encourage your police officers to request, and your magistrates to sign, an emergency magistrate's protective order in each and every offense involving Family Violence when an arrest is made. Emergency Magistrate Protective Orders only last from 31 to 91 days, depending on the offense, and I find that this cuts down on victim's coming in and requesting the 2 year Family Code protective order and then wanting to drop the action once they change their mind. Normally the victim will come see me to drop the emergency protective order and I tell them I have no jurisdiction to do so and that only the magistrate who issued the order can modify it.

@Scott - Most of the offices do have cameras, but not every officer has a camera. I have five separate police departments in my jurisdiction, and I would not be able to buy each individual officer a camera. Many times the officers do take pictures, but as I stated in my original post, those pictures often do not show much of anything. I only deal with misdemeanors, so the injuries in the cases I deal with are not usually going to be obvious. Many times there is no visible sign of an injury even if the officer has the opportunity to take a picture. The other concern I have with filing against the victim is that if and when he or she finally decides to end the relationship and seriously pursue the protective order and/or the assault charge, then some type of prior arrest or conviction of false report to a police officer by the victim effectively ends that possibility. How can you proceed with a new protective order/assault with a victim who has been convicted of lying before about the exact same thing? However, I would really be interested to know how your policy works out. @CarolynO - I am well-acquainted with the EPO's, and every one of the departments that I work with encourages victims to pursue EPO's. Quite a few of the victims do obtain EPO's. However, in my experience this hasn't appeared to cut down requests for 2-year protective orders nor has it appeared to have much effect on victims becoming uncooperative or recanting. I have many victims who have an EPO, come into my office for a 2-year order, and then still recant prior to the actual hearing on the 2-year protective order; or the victim decides not to pursue the assault after the EPO ends. I don't ever help "undo" any protective order of any kind, whether it's an EPO or a 2-year one. I tell victims that they have to hire a private attorney to do that if that's what they choose to do. I do appreciate the input - it always helps to know what others are doing.