Today, we’ll be exploring our holistic approach to pre indictment sexual assault allegations defense – you don’t have to wait until you are charged to hire a criminal defense lawyer in Delaware. Answering and addressing accusations of sexual misconduct early on in the process is critically important.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. There are so many collateral consequences of being convicted of a sexual assault crime or merely being accused of a sexual assault crime. By engaging an attorney early on in this process – as soon as you know an accusation has been made against you – a lot of that harm can be prevented.
The knowledge that an accusation has been made and that investigation is ongoing, is really a rare gift in the criminal process. Whether or not and how to provide a statement to submit to a polygraph or to give DNA or other physical specimen sample to the police can be a key determination as to whether charges are ever issued against an accused person. The introduction of additional and intentional contextual evidence to the police’s investigation really helps them get a full understanding of the circumstances, and has repeatedly resulted in no charges issuing against our clients. Being engaged in the process very early on, at both a law enforcement and a prosecutor prosecutor’s office level, and the trust that that builds the faith that the prosecutor’s office is going to have that you’re going to show up to court, that you’re not going to go on the run and the credibility that it builds throughout the process with the police, the prosecutors, the judge, and ultimately with the jury. In all of these circumstances, the accused person taking charge of that narrative in a legally informed and a strategic way can be invaluable, regardless of what direction these cases take.
You don’t want to try to do something that you’ve never done before because you think it’s not a big deal yet, when a criminal accusation is a very, very big deal. You have legal rights during a police investigation that a defense lawyer might be able to protect. Until a criminal action is filed, no one is under any obligation to cooperate with a police officer. That means other family members have no obligation either. Search warrants can be based on reasonable cause, if a warrant is in place, that’s your cue to retain an attorney as soon as possible. Now, our recommendation is that on your first contact with an authority questioning you about sexual assault allegations, be that a supervisor at work, a police officer, or a school principal or other official at school, you should immediately exercise your right to remain silent, and hire an attorney. Don’t be fooled into believing that if you tell the truth or cooperate, nothing bad will happen. If you’ve been accused of sexual misconduct, get an attorney and speak only through that attorney, having somebody that’s going to take a reasoned, logical approach to getting your story told and told in such a way that it can be supported by evidence is critically important.
Holistic criminal defense is something that we coined, what we saw was that time and time again, our clients were benefiting from our assistance in the courtroom. But they were benefiting almost equally through our assistance outside of the courtroom through talking to our clients about their strengths and weaknesses, connecting them with individual services, pointing them in the right direction and keeping them motivated. Whether the allegation is true, or the allegation is false – there’s always room for improvement.
In order to be acquitted at trial, or through a complete dismissal of charges – charges do have to issue but each case is really dependent on its individual factual circumstances. In a general sense, we will continue to monitor for charges or indictments, including following up with the police or the prosecuting attorneys for an appropriate period of time following the investigation. We will continue to monitor court dockets for the entirety of the statute of limitations period for each case as applicable. What we offer, ultimately, is the peace of mind, to control what can be controlled, and prepare for whatever course of events do come to play out. It’s something that we’re passionate about in our practice, and something we advocate for strenuously.