I know literally nothing about the law or how any of this works but I'll share with you my experience as it's quite similar.

My bf came home drunk one night, choked me, and bounced my head off the floor. I called 911, they arrested him, I went to the ER to get checked out. I filed for a restraining order on him. He had one prior assault charge from when he was a minor.

His father posted his bail, and after the restraining order was up we spoke. I decided pressing charges would mess everything up even more and just wanted it to be over. The victim witness advocate from court called me, I told her I did not want to press charges. They got him for 2 felonies, strangulation and assault with a deadly weapon. I told his lawyer I did not want to press charges. Everyone said my statement and everything was enough. When his court date came the case was dropped. He didnt even get a fine.

The only difference was he paid for a lawyer after his court appointed one basically did nothing. This whole process took about 8 months. Again, I have no idea what legally happened, all I know is i never went to court, I had photos of my face taken at the hospital and I gave my report to the arresting officers that specifically detailed everything that happened.

Good luck with everything.