http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/video-shows-judge-berating-sentencing-domestic-vio/nnwwh/

I find it appalling that this article completely negates all of the wasted time and money that occurred when this woman refused to show up in court and testify. Let's consider what that consisted of: the policemen who spent hours at the scene, arresting the alleged abuser and filling out a lot of paperwork to get it to -- the prosecutor's office where some lawyer had to spend at least a few hours reviewing the file, talking to the alleged victim, deciding on charges, and creating all the paperwork to get it into court so that -- a scheduling and then a pretrial hearing could be conducted with a judge, a law clerk, court personnel, the prosecutor and most likely a defense attorney as well as the defendant for a couple hours so that -- a jury could be selected which took a couple hours for all of the previously listed people as well as around 20 to 25 potential jurors so that -- the prosecutor could ask for a subpoena for the reluctant witness to show up in court which had to be hand delivered to her by a sheriff so that -- on Tuesday morning 6 members of the jury, the judge, the court personnel, the policemen, the prosecutor, the defendant and most likely his defense attorney could all sit around for a couple hours twiddling their thumbs until it was obvious the alleged victim would not appear. Case dismissed.

The defendant spent 13 days in jail on this dismissed charge.

Somehow, SHE is still the victim.

The financial costs of this wasted exercise are staggering. Lawyers are expensive and judge's time doesn't come cheap either. Courts with all the necessary personnel are expensive to run. Policemen are usually getting over-time pay when they show up in court. Jail is pretty damned expensive also. Jurors are generally missing time from work and not getting paid.

I sympathize with true victims, but damn it there is nothing unreasonable about expecting people to show up in court on a case they chose to initiate.