daedalus_was_right t1_is6sv9a wrote on October 13, 2022 at 6:42 PM

Reply to comment by coma24 in No charges after beer thrown at comedian, Point Pleasant Beach police say by JMcLooneAPP

This is misleading. Individuals do not "press charges" in our justice system; the state does. This task falls to the district attorney in charge of the case. They have WIDE discretion in choosing to press charges or not, which is why we often see these instances of victims declining to pursue the issue and DAs declining to press charges as a result. But this is 100% on the DA; they absolutely have the power to move forward with charges regardless of what the victim wants.

coma24 t1_is75vj5 wrote on October 13, 2022 at 8:05 PM

That's fair, and I eluded to the fact that the DA can move forward on their own in a follow-up response earlier.

However, if the police are asking if the victim wants to move forward and they say no, then unless it's an egregious circumstance, I don't see how the DA moves forward when the victim will NOT cooperate. That will be a really quick discussion with the DA, presumably, "Does she wanna press?" "Nope." "Next!"