California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Weidert, 150 Cal.App.3d 759, 198 Cal.Rptr. 106 (Cal. App. 1984):
Clearly, no ongoing criminal proceeding is required under section 136; in fact, it is not even necessary that a person, to come within that definition, be an actual "witness" so long as a reasonable person would believe him to be. This court has previously held that no ongoing criminal proceeding is necessary to impose liability for the destruction of evidence pursuant to section 135 (People v. Fields (1980) 105 Cal.App.3d 341,
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