Every sex crime is going to have some sort of bail attached to it, but whether it's bondable depends on what the crime is, how serious the crime is, the past criminal record, and what type of danger is posed to the society. If your sex crime case involves children and you pose a great danger to the society, then the judge can deviate from whatever the bail schedule is for that particular crime and post a higher bail if they believe that is appropriate.
The judges in Los Angeles have gone through all of the crimes that could be filed in LA County, and they've decided on what a reasonable bail is for those crimes. It is only very rare that they would not put bail on somebody at the state level.
At the federal level, on the other hand, if you are charged with a crime and you're looking at a five, 10 or 15 year mandatory minimum, then the judges in those cases can just straight detain you. If that were the case, then you would not be able to get out and you would not be able to post a bond.
Should I Hire An Attorney In Advance If Investigated For A Sex Crime?
If you think you're going to be charged with a sex crime, you should absolutely hire an attorney as soon as humanly possible. The bottom-line is this: the authorities aren't going to arrest you and prosecute you based on the fact that you hired an attorney.
Hiring an attorney does not suggest that you are guilty. The authorities are going to arrest you if they think they can prove the case against you. Whether you hire an attorney or not, the dividing line between the charges being filed and not being filed has to do with the evidence.
So, by hiring an attorney, you can make sure that you don't give them any evidence that might incriminate you. Sometimes the attorney can actually provide them with evidence that shows that you're innocent of the crime, or else mitigate the crime down to something much less serious than what you would normally be charged with.
Penalties Associated With A Sex Crime Conviction
You really can't generalize what the penalties are going to be for a sex crime. There are a variety of different sex crimes, and it depends on the type of crime that you plead to. It also depends on whether it's a felony or a misdemeanor, as well as your criminal record.
The biggest thing in sex crimes that we're looking at when we defend these cases is whether or not they are going to make you plead to one of the listed crimes that require you to register as a sex offender for the rest of your life.
We are also looking at whether they are going to try to make you go to prison or be on probation, and whether or not there is some other punishment besides custody time that we can get for you.
We want to look at what type of restrictions they are going to put on you based on what you end up pleading guilty to. If you're innocent or not guilty of exactly what they're charging you with, then we have to decide whether or not we are going to take the case to trial.
Does Every Sex Crime Convict Have To Register As A Sex Offender In California?
No, they don't. There is a list of sex crimes in Los Angeles that, if plead guilty to, require you to register as a sex offender for the rest of your life. There is also a list of sex crimes for which there is a requirement for limited registration. As we make this information available today, there is a proposal that looks like it's going to pass.
There's going to be a three-tiered system related to registration for sex crimes in California. Once that path is entered, it'll be much clearer who has to register and the extent of the registration. It will be easier to know whether a person's going to be on Megan's Law or restricted from going to different areas.
If you're going to have to plead guilty to a sex crime, it's crucial that you know whether or not you'll have to register as a sex offender, what the extent of the registration is going to be and what the ramifications are going to be.
If someone has to plead guilty to a sex charge, we try to find a sex crime that is non-registerable. There are actually not that many, but there is a list of them. If we can show the prosecutor that it's more appropriate for you to plead to a non-registerable offense, then obviously we are going to save you a lot of aggravation and that horrible negative stigma of having to register as a sex offender.
There are a lot of cases where the accuser has second thoughts about prosecuting the defendant. But in a criminal case, it's not the accuser against the defendant, but rather it's the people or the state of California against the defendant. At the federal level, it's the federal government against the defendant.
So, it's common for the accuser to have second thoughts, either because they embellished the story about the person or because they don't want to have to go through the embarrassment of testifying in a criminal case. But ultimately, the accuser not wanting the particular defendant prosecuted is only one of the factors related to the case.
The prosecutors would be the ones who make the final decision on whether or not someone is going to be prosecuted and to what extent.
Defenses That Can Be Used In Sex Crime Cases
One of the defenses is obviously consent. If somebody agrees to either have sex with somebody or permits somebody to touch an intimate part of their body, then that would be a defense to a crime as long as it involved two adults. If there's a child involved, then the child cannot consent and that certainly could not be a defense in a sex crime case.
Other defenses probably relate to the circumstances surrounding the sex offense, so they would be factually driven. Sometimes people will try to take advantage of another person because there is a custody battle, so they claim some sort of a sex offense. To claim that an allegation of having committed a sex crime was fabricated in order to gain an advantage in a divorce proceeding or a custody battle would certainly be a defense.
Really what it boils down to is that there can be all sorts of defenses. It just depends on the charges and the circumstances. Obviously, the defense lawyer needs to speak to the client and find out their side of the story. Once that is done, a defense can be established based on the facts given by the particular defendant.
For more information on Bondable Nature Of Sex Offenses, 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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