Question on how/why an officer or dept would decide to drop molestation charges?

[waamsleigh]

I'm a little confused and concerned and don't know where to turn. My niece confessed to me that she was sexually molested by her mother's boyfriend. They live in the state of Delaware, I live in PA. When this happened my brother and I (her father) were in DE visiting and we immediately took action and spoke with state and local police. The next day we took her to a children services place where she was interviewed and video taped by police and social workers. We were not allowed to be in the room. However, from what we were told, what she told them matched up with what she told us. My niece had told her grandmother (her mother's mother) and they both didn't believe her however, she told me and I do. The things she told me would not be things a 10 yr old could make up. This has been going on for about 3 weeks and my brother now has temporary custody of her, but her mother called and told us that the charges were dropped against her boyfriend last night. This was after business hours before we could get ahold of anyone and now we have to wait the whole weekend before we get an answer. There is a possiblity that her mother is making this up, however, if she isn't then how or what justifies the police dropping molestation accusations? There was no trial, no one had a chance to testify (most importantly my niece). I'm confused...why this would happen. What will happen next? I don't want my brother to have to send my niece back to her mother and that environment. I know for now he has the custody but if the charges were dropped, and the full custody hearing comes about, what's to stop the courts from sending her back if the police have dropped the charges? I'm scared for my niece.

Desperately seeking answers!
Please help ...
Thanks

[G35 Mass]

99% of the time when "charges are dropped" in their entirety it's due to probable cause evaporating.

If the investigation turned up something the removes probable cause (such as your niece lying), charges would be dropped.

[waamsleigh]

How can they proove she was lying? That's what I don't understand. There was no penetration. So her hyman is still intact. She said he humped her, and inserted fingers in her vagina and anus, and made her touch his penis. So how can they PROOVE she was lying, other than stories not matching up. Which we were told they already do, by social services.

[G35 Mass]

There are a thousand ways to prove a witness / victim was lying. None of which are appropriate for discussion in an open forum with the public.

I also said that my scenario that it was found that she was lying was just one reason the charges could have been dropped.


Were charges ever formally filed with a court? Charges can't be "dropped" if they were never filed.

[retdetsgt]

Generally 10 year olds don't lie about stuff like that. Only the police at this point can tell what the status is.

[icu650]

They don't necessarily have to prove that she was lying.They have to be able to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that he is guilty and be ready to take it to trial. It is very hard to prove without further physical evidence or corroborating testimony. I do understand your feelings. Please continue to keep a good eye on her and be suspicious but cautious.
I believe you meant "my niece confided in me" and not "my niece confessed to me".

[retdetsgt]

Although the police may not pursue it children's services may to protect the child. I worked sex crimes for about 7 years and we had these kinds of cases all the time. There are so many factors determining provability that it's impossible to tell you based on what you have.

[waamsleigh]

Maybe this was just an investigation and they stopped investigating. Because to my knowledge nothing was filed with a court. Her mother must be saying they were "dropped" since he was allowed to return home. Originally he was made to leave the home he shared with her, her half sisters and her mother, and then he had to have surpervised visits with her sisters (his daughters). I am just scared that she'll have to go back to them.

[waamsleigh]

Is there a legal difference between confessed and confinded? Asking out of curiousity's sake....

[waamsleigh]

That's what I was thinking, why would a ten year old lie about something like that?

[retdetsgt]

Your niece may have recanted.

[G35 Mass]

Is there a legal difference between confessed and confinded? Asking out of curiousity's sake....

He said you probably mean "confided", not "confined".

People who commit crimes confess (admit to the crime) about doing them.
People who share secrets confide in (trust, feel safe) the people they tell.

Generally we only use the word confess when it's in reference to someone who comes clean and says they committed a crime.

[scott715us]

As others have mentioned, they are very hard cases to get an indictment and more importantly a conviction on. I worked a case where a guy exposed himself to a girl near the same age. The judicial commissioner would not sign the warrant because there were no other witnesses aside from the victim (it happened on a commercial flight).

[mobrien316]

In this area, the term "charges dropped" means that someone was arrested and when they went to court the case was dismissed. If no one was arrested then there were no charges in the first place - there was an investigation.

If there is no physical evidence other than the statement of a child, the usual course of action is to see to whom was this incident disclosed? Did the child tell several different relatives or friends at different times, and were all versions of the story consistent? That might lend more weight to her story.

In Connecticut a minor victim of sexual assault would be interviewed by a forensic psychologist on the Multijurisdictional Investigative Team. They are only interviewed once to avoid retraumatizing them over and over.

Kids don't generally make up stuff like this on their own, however, I have seen parents coach their children to say things that weren't true, often in an attempt to gain leverage in divorce and/or custody proceedings.

Your best bet to find out what happened is to have the guardian of the child contact the police agency to which you originally complained.

[retdetsgt]

As others have mentioned, they are very hard cases to get an indictment and more importantly a conviction on. I worked a case where a guy exposed himself to a girl near the same age. The judicial commissioner would not sign the warrant because there were no other witnesses aside from the victim (it happened on a commercial flight).

There has to be witnesses? I've arrested and gotten convictions on men lots of times for exposing to women one on one. Ages of the victim and suspect are immaterial as far as the investigation.

We have the multi-disciplinary team approach here too. The child is examined by a trained pediatrician and interviewed by a social worker. The whole thing is video taped for court. IMO, that has its pluses and minuses. Personally, I liked interviewing the child myself. They started this program just before I left and I had several where I wish I could have asked some questions the interviewer didn't. Also, the delay often gave the abuser too much time to lawyer up. When we did them, I often interviewed the child, then the abuser a couple of hours later and was able to catch him off guard and get confessions. Now they get good child interviews, but not many confessions or admissions of any kind by the abuser.

There are so many variables in these investigations, more than most other kinds of cases. The history of the child, the suspect, who else has been around the child, the family dynamics, on and on and on. They're not like car thefts where there are witnesses, fingerprints, etc. And sometimes there isn't physical evidence at all, but we get good solid convictions. I've rarely found cases where a child that young lied about what happened, but I have had incidents where they lied about who did it. Sometimes they were afraid of the abuser, but wanted it to stop so badly that they accused the wrong person, not realizing the consequences. So it's a double edged sword because you don't want to dismiss the child, but you sure as hell don't want to convict the wrong person either.

The ones who's veracity I trusted the least were teen age girls, usually 13-16. That's the most likely age group to fabricate the whole thing from A to Z, adult women included. It's usually not that hard to determine when a little kid has been coached. They almost always come across has giving you a memorized speech.

As I said earlier, sometimes Children's Services continue their investigation even though we can't proceed. Their job is to protect the child and they don't need the same level of proof to do that. Sometimes when the child is removed from that environment, they feel safe enough to provide more and better information.

But as I keep saying, these cases have so many dynamics that I would not ever be able to speculate anything based on a third party explanation. I would have to see the interview of the child plus learn a lot more about the suspected abuser, etc, etc, etc.