Couple of Legal Questions

[ishamael69]

Need answers quick! (J/k)

This is inspired by the Bachelor in Paradise rape (sorry, misconduct) all over the news. (My thread here: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=20279119#post20279119)

First, I believe this happened in Mexico, so not as much legal problems as here. But, it seems to me that US citizens and a US company were involved. Are US criminal charges possible?

Second, is it possible (in the US) (with video evidence perhaps) to charge a person with rape even if the victim does not want charges? If possible, does it actually happen?

Third, when is an arrest made? For example, if I get pulled over with a huge unmarked bottle of opioids, I might get arrested, but never have charges brought, because I had a prescription, correct? You hear of people turning themselves in all the time. When would an arrest take place in a situation like this? (Assuming authorities ever get involved…)

[AK84]

Can answer no 1, but as for the second question, yes absolutely.

[Alley_Dweller]

@ishamael69

Second, is it possible (in the US) (with video evidence perhaps) to charge a person with rape even if the victim does not want charges? If possible, does it actually happen?

A Texas Prosecutor Jailed a Rape Victim

Her experience in jail would have been awful even if she’d been a convicted criminal. But she wasn’t—she was a rape victim who had been incarcerated by a prosecutor worried about the possibility of her not showing up to testify at trial against her attacker. Thanks to a little-known legal instrument known as an “attachment order,” the district attorney in Harris County, Texas, forced the woman to spend an entire month in a notoriously hellish jail despite not even being accused of a crime—all because he feared that she would fail to appear at a court date during which she was supposed to provide testimony against a now-convicted rapist. During her time in the jail, according to a lawsuit filed earlier this month, she was beaten by a fellow inmate, treated like a sex offender by medical staff, and punched in the face by a guard.

Victims jailed in New Orleans for refusing to testify, watchdog group says

In one 2016 case, a female rape victim was jailed for more than a week after the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s office issued a material witness warrant for her arrest. She was incarcerated at the same facility – the Orleans Justice Center – where her accused rapist was also being held, said Simone Levine, the executive director Court Watch NOLA.

Rape Survivors Will Be Jailed If They Can’t Or Won’t Testify, Louisiana District Attorney Says

California: Alleged Rape Victim to Remain Jailed Before Attacker’s Trial

Canada: Rape Victim Forcibly Shackled, Jailed Near Rapist

[AK84]

Just for the record. It’s not just rape case complainaints that can be detained. Any witness can be so detained if you can convince a judge that they may abscond before testifying. It’s an extraordinary remedy and one which is rarely granted so I suspect there is more than what is stated in the links above.