Once a police report of an incident like a fight is generated, it is forwarded to the county attorney's office. If the deputy county attorney that is assigned, finds, after reading the report, that it contains all of the elements of a criminal offense and, the county attorney feels it is worth filing, the charges can be filed, despite the victim's desire to let it go.

On a practical note, this situation happens often. Cases where the victim does not want to have anything to do with it routinely go to court anyway. Technically, once the state becomes involved, the prosecutor's job is to defend the state, not the victim.