[sugarmaple]

You are right, it can depend on the judge too; if the prosecutor opts not to do anything, regardless of the seriousness of the crime because it is not a slamdunk, it never gets to a judge.

There was a case, not too long ago, and a pretty serious crime, very serious crime actually, and it was not prosecuted - somehow, and I am not sure of all of the technical mechanisms that brought it about, but another prosecutor from a whole different county ended up in this county to prosecute it.

I certainly learned, the hard way, that the State does not represent the 'person', the victim, they represent 'the state' - I am not quite clear exactly what that means - yet I know that a victim of a crime is supposed to be afforded the opportunity to have 'their day in court' too...and if a case is not prosecuted, the only one who wins is the offender and I think that is wrong.