Preventing A Witness From Testifying Or Alternative Dispute Resolution.

A criminal defendant was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, among other crimes, after he punched a victim in the face and broke the windows of a car with a baseball bat while another victim was inside the car. The day before the preliminary hearing, defendant approached the victim he punched following prayer services at the victim’s mosque. Defendant apologized and stated: “[W]e’re both Muslims. That if we could just settle this outside the court in a more Muslim manner family to family, have our families meet and settle this out of court and not take this to court.” On the day of the preliminary hearing, the victim told the prosecutor about his conversation with defendant and asked if the case could be handled in another way. Penal Code section 136.1, makes it a crime to attempt to prevent a witness from testifying when the attempt is made with knowledge and with intent to prevent the witness from testifying. In addition to being found guilty of the originally charged crimes, defendant was also found guilty of attempting to dissuade a witness from testifying.  In affirming, the appellate court stated:  “We conclude there was sufficient evidence to support the finding that [defendant] acted maliciously as well as knowingly under section 136.1 in attempting to persuade [the victim] from testifying at the preliminary hearing the next day.” (The People v. Abdullah Wahidi (Cal. App. Second Dist., Div. 7; December 30, 2013) 222 Cal.App.4th 802, [166 Cal.Rptr.3d 416].)