Legal obligation? Options

[Oasis]

Probably one of the worst "holy shit, it's a small world" scenarios just happeneed.

In December one of our businesses burned down. There hasn't been an official ruling on whether or not it was accidental or arson, although pretty much everyone suspects arson (We had a loser douchebag working for us who we had to fire because he could never show up for work on time; Apparently, he's hated us ever since. Plus, he's nuts).

A few nights ago I was driving by with my girlfriend and she asked was that our building. Yeah, I said. She told me she was talking to her dad about it and her dad knows who did it. I goddamn near swerved off the road. Apparently, the main suspect lives across the street from her dad and they're drinking buddies. I told her to get whatever info she could from her dad and after talking to him, she said he told me if I met with him he'd tell me who did it. I went over to his house and the first second I mentioned the suspects name he completely clammed up. Told me he had no idea who did it and he never told Erica (my gf) anything and she must have misheard him.

Bullshit.

It's blatantly obvious he got spooked or something and now won't talk. He knows exactly who did it and who did it was the guy we suspected from the beginning.

Is he under any legal obligation to tell the police if he knows who committed a crime? I would think so. I just don't know what to do, because if I went to the police myself and told them my girlfriend's dad knows who did it it could start all kinds of shit with their family. Plus I'm sure he would just deny any knowledge.

[impala454]

Obvious to him maybe but not obvious in a criminal court case. You'd probably waste your entire insurance check + more trying to bring this guy down and then lose and get eaten up in the civil court countersuit. I'd keep prodding and see if there's any hard evidence to be had or if it's just hearsay. Without some kind of evidence or eye witness testimony, you've got nothing but a lawyer moneysink.

[Oasis]

Obvious to him maybe but not obvious in a criminal court case. You'd probably waste your entire insurance check + more trying to bring this guy down and then lose and get eaten up in the civil court countersuit. I'd keep prodding and see if there's any hard evidence to be had or if it's just hearsay. Without some kind of evidence or eye witness testimony, you've got nothing but a lawyer moneysink.

This.

I can't just go to the police and accuse someone without any real evidence other than third party hearsay. And I certainly can't go around publicly stating that I think XXXXX committed the crime, especially during an ongoing investigation or before any arrests have been made. It would open up myself and my mom's company to a huge libel/civil suit.

Also, the cops already have his name and (claim) they're investigating him. How high up it is on their priority list is probably up for debate. It's taken them nearly two months to get around to trying to retrieve the surveillance data from the main computer. Even with my limited knowledge of technology I probably could have removed the hard drive from the desktop in under 30 minutes. Whatever.

If I had solid physical evidence like a recorded conversation of Erica's dad stating he knew who did it I'd be at the Sheriff's office right now. If he wanted to change his story with the cops and risk getting arrested for withholding evidence that's his problem. And I wouldn't care about the repercussions of her being mad at me. But all I have to go on is what she told me her dad said. If I threw all my eggs in one basket and asked the cops to talk to her dad it'd be too risky. If he refused to tell me he'd refuse to tell the police. If he said something that ruled out the guy as a suspect we'd be fucked in several ways.