Taping a call?

Hi I have a friend who is being fasley accused of domestic violence. The girl he's being accused of "hurting" says she only went to the police because she was angry at him and all that he did was knock over a glass of tea and break her cell phone. She admits this, but does not want to say this in court because she is scared she will get in trouble. She has tried to drop the charges but they cannot. This would not be my friends first domestic charge. My question is if we can tape her saying what actually happened and use it in court-if that is legal or not. We are in Texas, if that helps.

Thank you very much for anything that can help.

Breaking her cellphone by anything other than an accident is considered domestic violence. You cannot, in any state, break things or "throw" things out of anger. If you do, you are being violent... I've been through this before. For whatever reason, he broke her phone, etc. he should have just walked away instead of breaking anything. If he had hurt her, it would be considered domestic abuse, not domestic violence.

Originally Posted by Unregistered Hi I have a friend who is being fasley accused of domestic violence. The girl he's being accused of "hurting" says she only went to the police because she was angry at him and all that he did was knock over a glass of tea and break her cell phone. She admits this, but does not want to say this in court because she is scared she will get in trouble. She has tried to drop the charges but they cannot. This would not be my friends first domestic charge. My question is if we can tape her saying what actually happened and use it in court-if that is legal or not. We are in Texas, if that helps. Thank you very much for anything that can help.

It appears that Texas is a "one party" state, meaning that one party can record without the other's knowledge. (in two parties states, both parties must agree to be recorded).

Even though it may be a one party state, that does not mean that a tape will be allowed as evidence in court. In a situation like this a tape wouldn't do any good, unless the tape were played AND the victim was willing to admit that the tape was true.