California Sexual Assault Penal Code PC § 220 & Defense Attorney
Sexual Assault is a very serious charge that can devastate your life, your career, and your family. Police and District Attorneys investigate and prosecute these cases very aggressively. You need a lawyer that can conduct a similarly aggressive investigation to exonerate you. We have the experience, skills, and resources to get you on an even playing field and to fight back.
What is Sexual Assault?
Penal Code §220 defines Sexual Assault as a crime in which the defendant assaults another with the intent to commit rape, sodomy, oral copulation or other sexual crimes.
What must the prosecution prove to convict someone of Sexual Assault?
In order to be found guilty of Sexual Assault, the prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant:
The defendant willfully committed an act which would probably result in a battery upon another person.
And, when the defendant acted, he intended to commit a sexual crime such as rape, sodomy, or oral copulation without the lawful consent of the other person.
What is an example of Sexual Assault?
A man takes his date to a secluded area and begins to undress her without her consent. After getting off the girl’s bra, he attempts to unbuckle her pants while forcing his weight upon her, keeping her in a position where she can’t move. The girl screams which finally persuades the man to stop his unwanted sexual advances.
Sexual Assault is a very serious charge requiring the skill and expertise of an experienced criminal defense lawyer. Please don’t try to be your own defense attorney.
Contact us TODAY to schedule a FREE confidential consultation to protect your freedom and reputation against unjust prosecution!!
Defenses to Sexual Assault Charges
Being accused of Sexual Assault is a very serious matter. If your defense is not handled properly, you could be wrongly convicted and sentenced to state prison. You could be ordered to register as a sex offender for the rest of your life.
Facing these kinds of charges is not easy on an emotional or legal level. We have successfully defended hundreds of people who have been falsely accused of sexual assault. I often successfully employ the following defense strategies:
False Accusation
By far, the most common defense against Sexual Assault is that the alleged victim has made a false accusation that you sexually assaulted her. The police or prosecutors often rely on the word of the victim without any kind of objective corroboration whatsoever.
As your attorney, we will engage the services of a professional investigator to interview important witnesses who may have seen the alleged victim acting flirtatiously and aggressively toward you at a party or during a date. We often use a female investigator to interview the alleged victim. We have gotten some very impressive results using an experienced female investigator in these cases.
Regardless of what investigator your attorney ultimately chooses to help guide your defense, interviews and sworn statements of critically important witnesses must be obtained to present to the District Attorney.
Another tool we often use to discredit false accusations of Sexual Assault is a confidential polygraph examination. If we conduct the polygraph under fair conditions, we can often get a negative result which will help bolster the defense strategy of persuading the prosecution that their evidence is too weak to prosecute you.
We will also conduct our own confidential psychological evaluation of you to show that you do not possess any of the traits of a child sexual predator. An excellent result will further our goals of having the child molestation charges rejected.
Pre-File Defense
Our attorneys initially attempt to carry out these defense strategies before the District Attorney has made a decision on whether or not to file charges. By presenting favorable sworn statements, polygraph results and psychological evaluations of our clients, we are often able to convince the District Attorney to reject the case and not file charges.
Pre-Trial Defense
If our clients hire us too late to conduct a pre-file defense, we can often employ the very same defense strategies to convince the District Attorney that they don’t have sufficient evidence to move forward with the prosecution. We actively lobby for a dismissal of all charges which we have been very successful in accomplishing.
Trial Defense
In the event, the District Attorney refuses to dismiss the charges, we are ready to go to trial and win a not guilty verdict on our client’s behalf. Because we have prepared so thoroughly and so early in the case, we are often a step ahead of the prosecution and find that we are much better prepared at trial than they are. Our percentage of not guilty verdicts is very high because of how thoroughly we prepare our client’s defense.
My Criminal Defense has successfully defended many clients who have been falsely accused of Sexual Assault by conducting a thorough investigation of the facts of each of our clients’ cases. Our criminal defense attorneys have extensive experience handling such cases and, with our defense team of investigators and experts, our attorneys can help defend your legal rights and protect you against wrongful and unjust prosecution.