Thread: How long after a crime has been committed does the victim have to press charges?

In New York State If a credit card and a car was stolen and $2600 was spent. The car was retrieved back and the cards were cancelled. The victim was asked to press charges when the Sheriff called, but the victim just wanted the car back. After sometime the victim had second thoughts about pressing charges. Is this possible?

yes, as long as they press charges before the statute of limitations runs out.

A victim does not really press charges. A victim merely reports a crime, and indicates his or her willingness to cooperate with the investigation and prosecution of a crime. The police investigate, and prosecutors determine whether to press charges.

This sounds like a felony, so there is probably no statute of limitations. The victim should go to the police and tell then that he or she is prepared to cooperate in the investigation and willing to testify at trial.

There is no private criminal prosecution in the u.s. and a victim cannot "press charges." A victim is free to report crimes to the cops any time. There are limits on the DA's ability to press charges, and it is unlikely that the cops will act on the report if all the evidence has been taken out of the chain of custody, but that was not your question.

Technically credit card fraud can usually be classed as a federal crime since the parent company is probably based over state lines. So the limitations go on for a very long time.

So yes it could be done. But hardly worth the ton of effort involved. Local police, feds, talking to them both, getting the evidence, lawyers, filing for a court date, finding the person, going to court, court date gets continued, etc. etc. would cost far more than $2600 in time and money.

On the local level the police would just say whatever..... you had your chance to press charges. Knowing that this basically is now a small claims civil matter.

The victim has until the statute of limitations runs out, which is typically at least 10 years for felonies. During this time the police can press charges, or the victim can press charges themselves if the police are no longer interested in doing so.

Another user mentioned that there are is "private criminal prosecution" in the US. This is true, however the user is confused about what this means. A private prosecution is where a person hires their own attorney to act as prosecutor in place of the district attorney. However this does not mean that an individual cannot charge another person with a crime in the same way that the police can. In fact, the Constitution's separation of powers guarantees this right.

If it were otherwise, then the executive branch of government (police) could prevent a victim of crime from obtaining justice merely by refusing to act. The courts will not permit the police to block a citizen's access to the courts in this way.