In criminal cases, the testimony of witnesses is crucial to establish the facts and prove the charges. Prosecutors usually have to call witnesses either at a preliminary hearing, a motion, or a trial. The defense is also entitled to call witnesses at the right proceedings, underscoring their pivotal role in the legal process.

In order to call a witness, you typically either ask that person to be there or issue a subpoena and have the subpoena served on them—basically ordering that person to come into court.

It should be noted that the defense attorney has the same subpoena power as the prosecutors in a criminal case in Los Angeles, ensuring a fair and balanced legal process. This power is exercised to ensure that all necessary witnesses testify in the case, and they can bring forth material evidence that helps one side or the other.

So, as far as whether somebody can be arrested, certain circumstances must exist for them to be arrested for not showing up to court. This underscores the seriousness of the legal process and the consequences of not fulfilling one's legal obligations.

For example, let's say there's a preliminary hearing in a felony criminal case pending in Los Angeles. The prosecutors issued a subpoena for a witness. They served it on them—in other words, they sent out a police officer.

The police officer put it in their hand and said, you need to come to court on this date. The subpoena is really clear about when the person has to come to court and the person decides not to come. Maybe they don't want to come because it's their husband who is in trouble, and now they don't want to prosecute the husband because the husband is the sole supporter of the family, and they've had a change of heart.

Prosecutor Seeking a Continuance If Witness Doesn't Show Up

If they don't show up at the preliminary hearing, the prosecutor can ask to continue the case and say, "I have a subpoena issued on this person." Then, they'd show the judge the proof of service showing that the person was served with the subpoena, who served it, and that it was done appropriately. Then, they'd have to ask the judge to issue a body attachment for that particular witness.

The judge would do it as long as all the criteria were met. Then, with that body attachment, they could send law enforcement to take the person into custody and bring them into court or hold them until the court proceeding and then force them to testify against the individual.

The judge would tell them they needed to testify. If they try to plead the Fifth, the judge could say no, you don't have the right to plead the Fifth because you're not necessarily going to say anything that incriminates yourself.

You just don't want to testify, so that's the right way to do it. Sometimes, prosecutors try to do it the lazy way by either calling the person to tell them they have to appear or sending a letter in the mail.

This is not an official way to do it. If the person who got called or was sent a letter in the mail doesn't show up, the prosecutors cannot issue a body attachment and cannot arrest that person because they didn't do it the right way with a subpoena in their hands, so they're clear that they have to show up.

Seeking Body Attachment For an Arrest and Brought to Court

So, the answer is yes. A person can be arrested for not showing up to a criminal case as long as the party who issued the subpoena does it correctly. The same goes for the defense.

The defense hits somebody with a subpoena the right way and serves them with it. They, too, can ask the court to issue a body attachment and get that person arrested and brought into court to testify in the criminal case.

The next question is, are the prosecutors really going to start arresting their witnesses or even victims in criminal cases? The answer is that sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't. There needs to be a clearer, defined answer for that.

In my view, having done this for twenty-five years, if it's a serious enough case where they really want to get this defendant because they perceive them as a bad danger to the public or even the victim in the case, they will arrest witnesses in order to get the defendant.

Why? Because they feel like that is the best way to serve the public by making sure this person gets convicted of the crime and punished for what they did. Another thing is that they have to be able to find the person to whom they're trying to issue the subpoena.

If they can't find the person, then there's really nothing you can do about that. I've had defense cases, and I've seen prosecution cases where you just can't find those witnesses. It's not anybody's fault. A lot of times the witnesses are intentionally evading the police because they don't want to be served with the subpoena, and even the defense — the defense is trying to get witnesses in.

We've had cases where my investigator could not find somebody. That person didn't have an address. They did not want to be served. They did not want to be part of the case. So, yes, you can get him arrested if you can serve him. But if you can't serve him, that puts you in a really difficult position in trying to get that particular witness into court.