The concerns about other victims is understandable. As to any particular victim, most states provide for a civil settlement agreed to by the perpetrator, victim, and prosecutor to be made which then bars a criminal prosecution. These can by criticized as "the rich buying their way out of trouble"; however, they can be useful as a way of compensating a victim and lessening the harm done to him or her. I agreed to several of these while a deputy district attorney, of course, always with the approval of my superiors.
For those critical of the result in the Cosby case, they should consider whether they really want a legal system where a prosecutor can make a promise to a suspect, on which the suspect then relies, and which the prosecutor could then break. Can you imagine a system where a defendant agrees to plead guilty based on a prosecutor's promise that he would recommend a sentence of 10 years only to have the prosecutor, at sentencing, ask the judge for a sentence of 20 years, saying that he made a mistake in promising to only ask for 10 years?
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