# Couple of Legal Questions **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 15, 2017, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couple-of-legal-questions/789000 "2017-06-15T02:17:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ishamael69](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b9e5f3/32.png) [@ishamael69](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ishamael69)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2017, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couple-of-legal-questions/789000/1 "2017-06-15T02:17:28Z")
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](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…) ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2017, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couple-of-legal-questions/789000/2 "2017-06-15T05:49:46Z")
Can answer no 1, but as for the second question, yes absolutely. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2017, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couple-of-legal-questions/789000/3 "2017-06-15T06:19:15Z")
> [@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](http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/crime/2016/07/a_texas_prosecutor_jailed_a_rape_victim_to_ensure_her_testimony_against.html) > [@](#): > > 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](http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2017/04/victims_jailed_in_new_orleans.html) > [@](#): > > 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](https://www.bustle.com/p/rape-survivors-will-be-jailed-if-they-cant-wont-testify-louisiana-district-attorney-says-51811) California: [Alleged Rape Victim to Remain Jailed Before Attacker’s Trial](http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/04/alleged-rape-victim-to-remain-jailed-before-attackers-trial/) Canada: [Rape Victim Forcibly Shackled, Jailed Near Rapist](http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/04/alleged-rape-victim-to-remain-jailed-before-attackers-trial/) ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2017, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couple-of-legal-questions/789000/4 "2017-06-15T06:34:25Z")
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.