My boyfriend was questioned in a burglary. We think we know who did it. Do we have to report to police?

Question

In December of '07, a vacant apartment in our building was robbed of all the worker's tools. My boyfriend, being in the construction field, was heavily questioned because he was familiar with the building, and knew the value of what was taken. But, he is innocent, and he is not a criminal.

Recently, there has been an arrest made, connected with a series of over twenty burglaries in our immediate area, stemming back to December '07.

The man arrested is our old roommate. He is familiar with the building, and was coming around at the time the apartment was robbed (we always turned him away).

He is already in jail on $210,000 bond. A detective did stop by recently, to "follow up" on the case, and again, questioned my boyfriend.

We are quite certain who did it. Question: are we obligated to report it to police? Will it clear my boyfriend's name? Will we be required to testify against this guy?

Here is the news story, if anyone's interested:

http://www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008808070521

Answer 1

You are not legally required to report it to the police but you should.  If he is truly innocent, he would do anything to clear his name.  Don't just sit back and wait for the system to work because sometimes it doesn't.  An innocent person would do anything to clear his own name, don't you think?

Answer 2

No you do not have to tell the cops nothing. What ever you tell the cops will be used against you in a court of law.

Answer 3

You can file a report. call the detective assigned to the case that interviewed your boyfriend. However, since you have no real evidence it was your old roommate, it will be difficult to build a case against him. At least if you file the report, you will be doing everything in your power to prove your boyfriends innocence.