It is feasible to take a sex crime case to trial when you have a good chance of winning. You don't want to take a sex crime case to trial if you're not going to win it, or you don't have a good chance to win it because the consequences can be devastating.
In determining whether or not you should take the case to trial, you want to sit down with a sex crime defense attorney who's been practicing for a long time, who's taken a lot of these cases to trial, and who sees what juries look at and how juries decide these types of cases matching that with the facts of your case.
When you sit down with that attorney, you want to be honest with them, and give them all the information necessary to defend you. Pretend a minute that you are the prosecutor or the police, and give them the information from that frame of reference.
This way, they are prepared to properly defend you, and tell you what they feel might happen, based on their prior experience and having defended these types of cases in front of a jury.
How A Sex Crime Will Affect Your Life
Unfortunately, when somebody is charged with the sex crime, the authorities will come in and if it's a sex crime that involves a minor and that person has minor children, a lot of times, they will get child services involved and you will be in jeopardy of losing your kids and them being sent into the Monterey child court, which is the child court that handles matters in LA county.
Obviously, your job would only be affected if your job found out about it or if your job somehow involved circumstances that would make it relevant that they should know that you're being charged with the sex crime. Under some circumstances, I do see the police alerting a job that they feel needs to know in order to protect the public from a person's conduct.
While the case is pending, obviously you want to get an attorney who can look out for these issues to be ready to defend you not just in the court but with the peripheral issues that can sometimes come along with the sex crime case in LA County.
Is A No-Contact Order Automatically Placed In A Sex Crime Case?
Over the past 25 years of handling sex crime cases, if somebody is charged with the sex crime, whoever the alleged victim is, in most cases, the prosecutors will request that the judge order a protective order.
That protective order is very broad and typically encompasses contacting the person face-to-face, over the phone, at their job, and even having a third-party contact on your behalf.
If you do any of those things during the pendency of the case, and during the pendency of the protective order that's in place, you will not only be subject to violating the terms of your bail or release, you will also be subject to being prosecuted for another crime.
There is going to be a protective order put in place, and you want to talk to your attorney about that if you feel that the other party may do something to try and cause you to violate that. There is a strategy that can be employed to prevent that.
Are People Generally Aware They Are Being Investigated For A Sex Crime?
About half of people are aware that they are being investigated for a sex crime. These people are called and the investigators want to talk to them, or the investigators show up at their house. The best scenario would be not to talk to them.
Even if the person is innocent, they shouldn't talk to them because a lot of times, things can be misinterpreted and misconstrued, people can be bullied or yelled at, and then the police can claim that they said something that ultimately ended up incriminating them.
The other half of the cases, the person doesn't know that they are being investigated. A lot of times, what they'll do in these cases is something called a pre-text phone call, where the victim or the alleged victim will call the person, and start asking them questions about the alleged sexual conduct, accusing them of the crime.
The police will be on the other line listening and tape-recording, and then they will try and use that evidence later.
In either of these circumstances, if you have any suspicion that you might be being investigated for any type of a sex crime, you want to get into a criminal defense attorney pre-filing. Make sure that your criminal defense attorney knows what's going on, and can properly advise you on how to deal with the authorities.
They can even contact the authorities on your behalf, let them know that you are represented and that you are not going to be answering any questions unless your attorney is present.
For more information on Taking A Sex Crime Case To Trial, a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (213) 542-0979 today.
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