A lot of times, I have complainants coming into my office and telling me they are the alleged victim in the case and they would like to drop the charges. One of the forms that we ask them to fill out is an affidavit of non-prosecution. This affidavit is a sworn statement, which is punishable under penalty of perjury if there are falsehoods or lies contained in the affidavit, which states basically that the complainant or the alleged victim is requesting that the prosecutors drop the charges or not go forward with the prosecution. It sets forth a few additional statements for them to complete, such as whether they do or do not want to come forward to court, do or do not want to be subpoenaed, do or do not want to testify in a case, and for it to be considered an affidavit of non-prosecution, they do always request in the affidavit that the prosecutors drop the charges.
While an affidavit of non-prosecution signed by the alleged victim in a case is not going to guarantee that the prosecutors are going to dismiss the case, it is something that is helpful in the negotiations. It is something that the prosecutors can use as CYA to protect themselves in the event that they later come back and are questioned by the police or by their bosses or by victim’s advocate groups on why they dropped the charges; it gives them some cover as to why they actually did choose to dismiss the case rather than letting them move forward to trial, because there is documentary evidence that the victim wanted the charges dropped. Even though the complainant has filed or signed an affidavit of non-prosecution, it does not automatically mean that the charges are going to be dropped, but the prosecutors will take it into consideration. It is simply a tool that we use in our negotiations in trying to negotiate a dismissal in our case.
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