Question from Oregon.... If someone (person A) committed multiple felony crimes which were never detected and which happened over 25 years ago, Is it criminal for person A to now pressure someone (Person B) (whom person A had admitted the crimes to), into making an agreement that neither of them “bring up anything of the past”. Even though person A is protected from prosecution by statutes of limitation. Person B (who is innocent of wrongdoing in the matter), is afraid of Person A and Person A has sadistically caused problems in many peoples lives before. Having been injured by Person A before, Person B feels that if he refuses to agree, he will suffer consequences. Can the crime of coercion be about concealing things that happened over 25 years ago?
From the LawyerCentral forum archive. Originally posted 4 March 2013 on a legal forum that has closed. Names and contact details were removed. See the original (Internet Archive).
I think this is more a tort claim than something which is reportable to the police. Person B could say that Person A is assaulting him. Assault simply means that Person A is making Person B fearful for his physical safety.
Also that agreement between Person A and Person B is non-binding unless Person A offered Person B something in exchange (other than Person B's safety) or unless Person B offered to remain silent first.
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