Very few attorneys focus on fighting false allegations. Many lawyers represent clients with child abuse and child sexual assault charges. These lawyers will handle such cases in addition to a general criminal defense practice. Child Sexual Assault cases are different than the typical criminal charge and must be handled differently!
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The falsely accused must have an attorney that does more than mere representation. The attorney must actually defend the falsely accused. Incredibly, many times an attorney will take the case and concern themselves with a disposition that meets with the satisfaction of the prosecution and judge. The prosecutor and judge are the enemy in child abuse cases!
Consider the following in hiring the right attorney:
LENGTH OF PRACTICE & EXPERIENCE
A false allegation case can only be defended successfully by an attorney with significant trial experience and specifically with child sexual assault cases. The falsely accused are not in a position to have inexperienced counsel.
Unfortunately, the police, Child Protective Services, and the public will consider you to be guilty. For the falsely accused it is important to act immediately. The falsely accused must prove their innocence! An attorney who does not begin an all out defense at the very beginning is wasting valuable time and compromising your future.
It is a false allegation. This needs to be vocalized and acted upon. The charge is false. The allegations are untrue. Scream it until someone hears. And if your attorney does not hear, then fire him/her and hire someone else.
There is no “home field advantage” in sexual assault cases. Do not shy away from a good attorney who is located in a different county from where you are being charged. Judges do not get re-elected if the public views them as being soft on a child sexual assault charge. It makes no difference how well a local attorney knows the judge that will not be of any assistance with this type of charge. An “outsider” who does not care about making the judge or prosecutor happy, but just wants to defend you and win is much better than a local name.
Your attorney does not have to be board certified in criminal law. Board certification usually means that the attorney practices criminal law in general. For a child abuse or child sexual assault allegation, the best is an attorney who concentrates primarily in those cases to the exclusion of other cases.
REJECT PLEA BARGAINS
A false allegation of child sexual assault must be beaten through either a dismissal or an acquittal (not guilty finding) at trial. There is no victory in a plea bargain with these cases. The innocent person’s life will be destroyed by pleading guilty. At no time in dealing with a false allegation should there ever be an admission of guilt. A plea bargain may seem an easy way out, but it will ruin the life of the falsely accused forever.
Deferred Adjudication, successfully served will not result in a conviction for the defendant. However, the lack of a formal conviction really is meaningless. Whether the accused receives deferred, straight probation, or is released on parole, he will still have to register as a sex offender. Registration is by nature, public, and will result in the nature of the charges being made known to anyone. Registration results in the loss of employment and the inability to secure future meaningful employment.
Community Supervision for sex offenders also requires sex offender treatment courses. In these courses the offender is required to admit that not only the actual charge is true, but also any additional charges or allegations made in police or Child Protective Service reports are true. It matters not that the charge is exaggerated, untrue, or only partially true. It matters not that the extraneous other charges did not occur. Failure to admit that everything alleged is true will result in a revocation of community supervision and placement in the penitentiary.
The prosecution will tempt the inexperienced defense attorney with offers of deferred adjudication and “treatment” instead of incarceration. Do not fall for this trap. Sex Offender probation has but one goal: to take all of the defendant’s money and then revoke him and send him to the penitentiary. The percentage of defendants who successfully make it through community supervision probation without being revoked is small. The reason it is so difficult to complete probation is the rules keep changing. Making community supervision more difficult for sex offenders is a favorite of the legislature. The changes politicians make offer the appearance of fighting child molestation. No lobby group exists for sex offenders and politicians can make community supervision success impossible.
Dunham & Jones, Attorneys at Law has assembled a team of experienced attorneys who focus on proving the innocence of the falsely accused of child sexual abuse. Contact us to discuss your case.