Learn What Rights You Can Lose If You Get Convicted of a Sex Crime. Sex crimes are probably one of the toughest convictions to sustain because of their ramifications on you as a person, your rights, and your freedoms. Most sex crimes have the potential for sex registration.
That's probably the worst right that gets interfered with, and it's a very problematic right because, first and foremost, it attacks your anonymity as a person. In other words, you have to register as a sex offender. People can figure that out.
They got Megan's Law, so a lot of times, you're going on the internet. So, if you live next to neighbors and they research you, they'd be able to figure out that you're a sex offender — in a lot of cases, not all cases, but most of the sex crimes they're going to be able to figure that out.
That's a right that you lose — that anonymity where people are now negatively looking at you.
Search and Seizure Rights and Internet Restrictions
Also, there will probably be search and seizure rights, where the police can search you any time of the day or night. They could pull you over and search you. If they find you on the street, they can search for you.
If you're on probation, they can do a probation search a lot of times. They can come to your home and search to see if anything is going on that's illegal. This is a vast right that you lose — the right against unreasonable searches and seizures. It's a big one.
They're also probably going to put internet restrictions on you where you may not be able to use the internet at all, or you'll be limited in what you'll be able to use on the internet.
People often don't think this is a big deal, but in today's day and age, being on that internet is a significant right and a significant thing to have taken away from you if you're convicted of a sex crime in Los Angeles.
Distance Restrictions From Schools or Parks
Other restrictions can take place, where you can't be in a certain amount of feet from a school or a park or a public place like that. Often, I've had clients who live within that range of a garden, and now they're going to end up having to move because of the conviction.
So, there's a lot of things on the line when you get charged with a sex crime, so obviously, you want to get an attorney that has a lot of experience and who can take all of these things into account to try to give you the bests chance to avoid some of the ramifications that come along with a sex crime.
What I do is I look at everything as your attorney, and I do whatever I can to limit the damage. We haven't talked about probably the most important right that you lose if you're convicted of a sex crime in Los Angeles, and that is freedom.
You can be taken into custody at the local level — the Los Angeles county jail — where you would serve up to a year, which is no fun, especially now with the Coronavirus being rampant there.
LA county is probably one of the most brutal jail systems because of the overcrowding and lack of room in such a vast population of prisoners coming in and out of there.
Contact Hedding Law Firm for Help
Another thing you're looking at is prison time, so you'd have to go to one of the California prisons and lose your freedom for sometimes years at a time, depending on what sex crime you're convicted of.
So, with all of these rights on the line, you must find somebody like me who has been doing this for 26 years from a defense standpoint. I've been defending people for 26 years, since 1994.
So, if you've got a situation where you're being investigated, or you're being charged with any sex offense in Los Angeles, you've come to the right place. After you've done your due diligence and research, pick up the phone. Ask to meet with Ron Hedding. I stand at the ready to help you.