Forum - View topicNEWS: Domestic Violence Charges Dropped Against Writer Tow Ubukata
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Araki
Posts: 382 |
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They certainly looked into the case of her broken tooth, they're no amateurs. And in the end, still found no reason to keep the charges. If they had any solid evidence of violence on his part, the wife not pressing charges wouldn't matter. But they dropped it because they hadn't. What you're doing is taking her side by default, even having no access to further details of the investigation. She could have a missing tooth already, for all we know, and tried to blame him after an argument. Who knows? Like men, women aren't saints either, so it's just as easy to come up with scenarios against her case. |
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CrowLia
 Posts: 5503 Location: Mexico |
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Statistics are on her side, is all I'm saying. She could've said she broke her tooth falling off the stairs or some other textbook excuse to cover for abuse. With something like that, unless they find the mark of his fist on her face or a piece of her tooth on his fist, is there really a way to actually prove he hit her? Like someone else said, he could've used something else to attack her. And depending on the country's law, the police may have no obligation to investigate or even be forced to stop the investigation if the claimant drops the charges
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Lili-Hime
 Posts: 569 |
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Wrong there; she pushed to have charges dropped. If your main witness refuses to testify or will testify to his innocence you're not going to get a conviction and it's a waste of time for everyone to proceed. |
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Araki
Posts: 382 |
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That's not wrong. Even the article says "The office took into consideration several factors, such as Ubukata's wife not wanting to press charges". It's not like she instantly killed the whole case when she didn't press charges. Doesn't work like that. Her dropping the charges helped to make the possible allegation weaker, all things considered, but it's not the one and only factor - and the article does not mention anything else like refusing to testify, or testify to his innocence. If they had evidence, they do could easily go ahead even without her charges. Thing is, that means we don't know enough to say he did it or not. Any assumption will require some degree of bias. |
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Lili-Hime
Posts: 569 |
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Except it does work like that; especially in cases where there the only witness was the alleged victim. What 'evidence' could someone manifest in a domestic abuse case between a couple in their own home? No witnesses, no security video footage. Any physical marks on her (or her broken tooth) she could explain in any number of ways. It's just not even close to enough for a conviction. They'd have to prove the case beyond plausible doubt, and you can't do that if the alleged victim / only witness won't press charges or testify against him. It's quite common for a judge just to drop the case entirely if the alleged victim doesn't show up to testify. In fact, the Bureau of Justice statistics show that only 2/3 of domestic aggravated assault charges proceed with prosecution. Of the 1/3 that are not prosecuted, 79% are not prosecuted because the victim will not co-operate with prosecution. Source The problem has gotten so bad that in the United States, many areas have adopted 'no-drop' policies which do not require victim co-operation to proceed with prosecution because prosecution rates were very low. I'm not saying he did it, but I'm not saying the charges being dropped means he's innocent either. No one knows what really happened but he and his wife. |
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Wandering Samurai
 Posts: 875 Location: USA |
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When the police gets called it has to be pretty serious at that point. If she wants to drop charges that is her choice, but to my understanding a lot of abusive relationships will see the police get involved only to have the "alleged" victim drop the charges. I put that word in quotation because obviously with lack of evidence and refusal to press charges they are then not a victim according to the circumstances that they present. Not that they are not victims, but they think they can fix the problem that they had. When the abuse gets physical though in my experience that's when it gets ugly.
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 7580 Location: Wales |
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An object like a ring maybe? |
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SilverTalon01
Posts: 2401 |
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The thing is though that according to the article, the police were pretty unlikely to charge him anyway. They released him without indictment last month. So they didn't think they had enough even before the wife withdrew support. Of course them not being able to prove anything doesn't mean anything at all as far as how legitimate the original claim was.
As in a wedding band? I think thats pretty much impossible. Even some giant ring is pretty unlikely to do that unless perhaps it has a rather large gem or something on it (which is certainly possible). The part of a punch with the most force is the knuckles. You don't have a ring on your knuckles. The part of your finger where the ring would actually be is below the knuckle where it will actually have some give on impact. Now that is assuming a full on, full force punch, but there is no way a tooth gets broken from some half assed hit. Now that in no way means he couldn't have hit her. |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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^
Ever watched Columbo? A ring can do damage to the face if a slap is used rather than a punch. |
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SilverTalon01
Posts: 2401 |
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Which is why I left that quote inside the quote and also why I said none of that in any way means he couldn't have hit her. Zunder specifically said punched in the face. |
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KH91
Posts: 6176 |
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I did not notice that I left out IF. lol I said IF in my mind, but it did not translate to the keyboard. |
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Flare-kun
 Posts: 92 |
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It's worth noting that if he did punch her in the face and that in fact broke her tooth, he would undoubtedly have some sort of abrasion on his knuckle. The mouth is also a rather sensitive spot; a direct blow with enough force to chip a tooth would also most likely result in other bleeding. All of this would be evidence that could be plainly seen by police.
When this incident was first reported, I found it rather odd that the sole mention of the wife's injury was via her claims, while any anecdotal mention of the cataloging of said injuries by police was notably absent. The fact that Ubukata was actually held in jail for a week goes to show that the authorities likely took this seriously and did a full investigation. Ultimately I don't feel there's enough evidence one way or the other to convict either party in the court of public opinion. But I do feel that if it happened exactly as the wife said, there would have been ample proof from a simple physical examination of both her and her husband. That said, I don't know how comprehensive Japanese media coverage is in situations like this, so there may be details we haven't been provided with. In the end it's all conjecture and burning anyone at the metaphorical stake would be based purely on speculation. |
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#846397
Posts: 5 |
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It's worth noting that lips can be good padding for your knuckles. The mouth is the fastest healing part of the human body; That said someone could hit a tooth directly and get no damage on either party or any other configuration. Other bleeding like... oh oh I get it not cool! It is a natural woman process. Marks don't mean much it's how they got there that's in question.THAT said a busted knuckle and a busted lip go together like... I don't know you pick!
In the end disregard everything I said. 
ps I thought the menstruation joke was tasteful like iron HEYOOOO |
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