How Can An Attorney Help Someone Facing A Sex Crime Charge In New Jersey?

What Steps Or Advice Can An Attorney Give To A Person Facing Sex Crime Charges?

First of all, an attorney make sure that they are following all the directions and all the limitations that the judge has put on them while they are awaiting a trial.

The second thing is that the attorneys need to get to work right away to get ahead of all the publicity and the stigma that the case has. Most counties have sex crimes specific prosecution teams that are used to handling these cases, so another thing to do initially is to have an assessment made of the defendant by a forensic psychologist to see if they are someone who is just a fantasy sex offender, or if they are somebody who is out to make contact with people.

There is a whole bunch of different areas between computer crimes and the assault crimes and the prostitution crimes, so it’s different but talking about the computer crimes, if somebody just wants to have interaction with the young person or an old person or whatever, they are looking for or trailing photographs, the lawyers want to have an evaluation done, hoping that the evaluation comes back and shows that they are not at risk to contact anyone.

Another thing the lawyers want to do is to get access to whatever computer equipment or phone equipment the police have to have their own forensic investigator conduct a forensic investigation of the equipment.

What Are Some Of The Defenses That Can Be Raised In The Sex Crimes Defense Cases?

Some of the defenses are that they did not do what they have been accused of and if the evidence is lacking, they are doing many psychological defenses, which we won’t get into because that could take an entire subject.

There are defenses where the forensic evidence that the police have on computer is not accurate and is corrupted somehow in the process, there is entrapment, there are cases where there is not a proclivity for contact and that negates some of the elements of the crime from being proven. Moving on to the prostitution crimes, it could be that it’s just the boyfriend and girlfriend or whatever the relationship is are playing some sort of game. The area of sex crimes is limited only by the worst aspects of your imagination for the defenses.

How Often Are Cases Seen Where An Accuser Decides Not To Press Charges At That Point? Is It Out Of Their Hands?

It’s not up to them to press charges, it’s the state of New Jersey versus defendant or the United States of America versus defendant. It’s the state which is the prosecutorial arm. So, the individual doesn’t press charges but there are times when people just don’t want to have anything to do with the prosecution and, that is a consideration that the prosecutors have. That doesn’t mean they are going to drop the case. They don’t have to tell the defense attorney that there are not enough witnesses who are going to help out. It may motivate them to settle the case but that’s something a U.S. defense attorney may or may not know.

There are also cases where you’re dealing with children and there is a reluctance to put a child through a legal proceeding where they are going to have to testify and one of the things that happen when dealing with children is that they are very susceptible to suggestion. The way the police come at a child or a parent comes to the child, may make the child think that they are supposed to say, “Yes, that happened,” “Yes, that man touched me,” “Yes, that woman did this to me,” “Yes, this person said this to me.” And a great deal of understanding how do you psyche using your own psychologist to evaluate the child can sometimes determine whether that was information that was either purposely or inadvertently planted in the child’s mind and really doesn’t represent something that actually happened.

What Makes The Difference Between A Case Being At The Federal Level Or State Level?

Typically, anything that happens online can be a federal case. It really is at the discretion of the prosecutors working together on the case. Attorney James Abate has had cases where they had FBI agents testifying in the State Court, they’ve had cases where they were in Federal Court. Really, it’s anything that crosses state lines or involves use of federal regulated industries such as internet, telephone.

These days, the federal government pretty much has the ability to insinuate itself in any sort of matter due to the regulation of telephones, cell phones, texting but generally, if it’s not crossing state lines or involving the internet, the Feds are not going to get involved and sometimes even if they do involve the internet, they are just handed off to the state to handle.

If you are unsure how an attorney can help in sex crime cases in New Jersey, contact our New Jersey criminal law firm with the contact information below.