Discreet Confidential Consultation (213) 374-3952

Can I Contact My Children?

Typically, the court will not put any ban on you having contact with your children unless your children were the victims in the case.

This is something that you want to take up with your attorney before you enter a plea in a sex crime case because if you're going to have to register as a sex offender, that will dictate what the ramifications will be.

You may even want to ask the judge about the issue so that if anything happens in the future, you're covered because you asked about it and you abided by whatever was indicated.

If you do have to register and try to put restrictions on you that are not called for, you can get your attorney involved. Within the next year or two, there will be a new three-tier system related to sex registration. If there's anything that you don't understand, you'll want to talk to an attorney who has experience in this area of the law.

What Happens to My Parental Rights If Accused Of Child Molestation?

The more serious the allegations are, the more likely there will be some court intervention related to your parental rights. Once you get into criminal court, there is a lag time there before the judge will decide anything about you and your case.

During that time, a judge can put a protective order in place to keep you away from any possible victim, including your kids. Another thing that happens in many of these cases is that Child Services becomes involved, and they will tell one party that they are not allowed to see their children while the case is pending. The dependency court could become involved, and the child can be taken away from home.

In severe cases, the system is afraid that the children are in danger, so they put them in front of a judge. They give their attorney; the parents each have their attorney, and the judge will decide what happens to the children.

Child molestation is very serious, and when they block parents from seeing their children, they're just trying to operate in the children's best interests.

Should I Speak To Witnesses In My Child Molestation Case?

If you're being investigated for a sex crime, you want to hire an attorney and give the attorney all the information. Let the attorney decide what to do with witnesses who might benefit you.

For example, the attorney could have an investigator take a statement from these witnesses, write up the information, and give that to the police. The attorney could call the police on your behalf to let them know that witnesses are to be interviewed and what the witnesses have to say.

On your own, you may do or say something that hurts your case or incriminates you. Let the attorney make the strategic moves related to a molestation case because so much is on the line.

Sometimes, a witness may seem helpful to you, but there are also some things that the witness might say that could be harmful to you. The biggest issue is deciding the best way to get information from a witness documented and preserved. It can either convince the prosecutors not to file charges against you or use a jury trial to defend you.

It could be used to show that you're innocent or to mitigate the charges against you, so you get a lesser offense than what you're charged with.

These are complicated questions, and they're best dealt with by an attorney who has handled these types of cases before, knows what it takes to win them, and knows what it takes to use witnesses properly. An experienced attorney knows how to deal with law enforcement and prosecutors, who will have an eye toward convicting you.

Evidence to Defend Against Child Molestation Charges

Proving that the alleged victim was giving lousy information about you can be a defense, especially if the alleged victim has accused someone else of molestation in the past. Whether that individual tends to lie or exaggerate facts would certainly be relevant.

If that individual has an ax to grind against you or is being manipulated by someone else should be explored. Sometimes, parents can use children to gain an advantage in a divorce or any other situation.

You want to look at the case's facts and circumstances and get that information to your attorney. Often, jurors wonder why someone would accuse someone of this type of crime if it weren't true.

That is the biggest thing that you have to fight against in a sex crime, so you should deal with it right from the beginning and start to think of reasons why someone would do whatever they're doing.

It will start to shape a defense in a case or tell you that you don't have a reason in the case. If it is the latter, you need to do something other than continue to insist that you're innocent because if you do that and you lose at trial, you'll get a much worse punishment.

What if My Profession Includes Interaction With Children?

There is case law out there that says that if you're charged with a crime and your case ends up getting dismissed, you might have a right to seal and destroy your arrest record. The key will be that you can show that the prosecutors can no longer prosecute you for that particular crime because if they can still charge you for it, judges will not be willing to seal and destroy the arrest record.

Another thing you have to look at is whether or not you can prove that you are factually innocent of the crime. If you can show you're factually innocent, you've always got a solid argument to seal and destroy your arrest record. It's a very high and difficult standard to meet.

In many scenarios, you're going to have to show that your arrest and prosecution were a complete mistake. Mistaken identity would be an example of an area ripe to convince a judge to find you factually innocent.

This is something you want to talk to your attorney about. Depending on what you were charged with, your attorney will have to do some research to figure out precisely what motion needs to be filed to try and get your arrest records sealed and destroyed.

Should I Ever Talk To My Accuser In A Child Molestation Case?

You don't want to disobey a court order that's in place, like a restraining order telling you to stay away from the accuser, their family, or the parents. You want to be very careful about this because sometimes, if you try to go to them and convince them that you didn't do anything wrong, it is viewed as intimidation, and additional charges can be filed against you.

Intimidating a witness is a severe charge. There is a $100,000 bail that attaches to it, so you'd have a tough time getting back out of custody.

Before you approach an alleged victim in a child molestation case or their family, you want to talk to an attorney who will help you decide how to handle the situation. You definitely wouldn't want to do anything that would violate a court order and subject you to further punishment or prosecution or solidify the currently pending charges against you.

Contact Us Today

Hedding Law Firm is committed to answering your questions about state or federal sex crime issues in California and throughout the United States.

I'll privately discuss your case with you at your convenience. All consultations are free, discreet, and confidential. Contact us today to schedule an appointment.

Menu