Sexual Offenses Article

I could waste a lot of your time by simply copying the Texas Penal Code and the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure for your reading pleasure but it wouldn’t tell you squat about how the system works or what you’re looking at if you plea or loose at trial on one the top four sex offenses. Criminal Justice has few options: Grand Jury No-Bill, plea bargain, dismissal or go to trial.

I’ve seen a lot of plea bargains on sexual offense cases. The accused pays the defense lawyer a bunch of money for a trial, then right before the trial the lawyer tells the client “look, if you lose you could be going to jail for a long time, the prosecutor is offering you DEFERRED ADJUDICATION! You’d be a fool not to take it, if you complete your probation the case will be dismissed! Take the deal!” What some of the lawyers don’t tell you are that you will be registering as a sex offender for the rest of your life; your neighbors will be informed that a pervert lives in their neighborhood; your drivers’ license will have big black letters at the top saying “SEX OFFENDER.” Your photo, crime, name, etc, will be published in the newspaper. Go out of town for more than a few days and you will be required to alert local law enforcement as to your presence. The terms of your probation might require you to go to counseling, move out of your house if children are present, not live within a prescribed distance from a school, park, pool, or other place children might frequently be at. You might not be able to use a computer. You could be ordered to take a polygraph at any time and at the end of a ten year probation period your term could be extended an additional ten years. Make any mistake during your probation and you are very likely will be going to jail for a very long time.

Allegations of sexual misconduct against a child or adult are easy to make and hard to defend. For example, a person has ten years from the date of their eighteenth birthday to make an allegation that they were sexually assaulted e.g. fondled, groped, etc. You might be charged with an alleged crime that happened twenty years ago with no medical evidence; only your word against the complainant’s.

Being charged with a sexual offense does not mean you are guilty. In my many years as a defense attorney, I’ve seen false allegations countless times e.g. nasty divorce, disgruntled or psychotic child, a child or stepchild that wants to live with the other parent, etc. When hired to defend a sexual allegation case we won’t promise you the world then yell at you if you don’t take the preferred plea bargain. Our policy from day one has been that once we set a case for trial, we go to trial. We are never too busy, scared, or too lazy to try a client’s case. Our record speaks for itself.