Consequences of What Can Happen If You Fail To Appear In Court

October 31, 2012 - Attorneys say they are seeing more and more cases of witnesses not testifying...

Attorney David Ridge tells us a lot of the time witnesses don't understand how valuable their testimony is... But what they say..or what they saw, could save someone's life.

Attorney David Ridge has seen a lot of cases where witnesses don't show up in court...

    The most recent case? This morning... When Chris Barnes, a witness in the Michael jams case failed to appear in court... For the second time.

    Ridge says if you are properly subpoenaed and you don't show up... Then you are in contempt of court, which is what happened for Barnes last week.

    He says the first step is finding the witness, and in some cases a material witness bond could be put on him... Where the witness would sit in jail until someone posts his or her bond...

    For Sonya Arrington of MATV this hits close to home.

    She tells us it's crucial for witnesses to appear in court and testify...like they did for her son, who was shot and killed over two years ago...