It is a load lifted. My wife was more worried than I was. It was affecting her sleep and mood for two months. Having a stressed out partner puts a huge strain on the household.
The good thing is we learned a lot from the experience.
The prosecutor gave us some helpful tips. If you get a summons to appear before the prosecutor for a minor criminal charge, they won’t issue an arrest warrant until you fail to appear on the third summons. So you can waste the plaintiff’s resources by not appearing the first two times.
If you are falsely accused of a criminal charge, you can sue the plaintiff for all your damages. If my wife hadn’t of settled (without compensation), we could have sued them for all our expenses and damages.