Client Avoids Prison Time, Sex Offender Registry

CHRIS C.

Chris came to me about a year ago, and he had some very big problems. It was an out of county case, up near the Missouri border. Chris was in a romantic relationship with a 16-year-old girl here in Oklahoma.
In Oklahoma it's perfectly legal to have a relationship, even a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old. In Oklahoma, the age of consent is 16. Where Chris came into problems, though, were the communications between him and his 16-year-old girlfriend. In this particular case, he and his girlfriend had been sending fairly explicit text messages, along with pictures and video, back and forth to each other. Some of those photographs were nude. Some of the videos were sexually oriented. The text messages were certainly sexually oriented.
In Oklahoma, even if you're in a perfectly legal relationship with a 16 or 17-year-old, if you communicate with them using a computer, any type of technology, digital device, phone, with a minor, 16, 17 years old, and the nature of that communication is sexual in nature, you've committed a crime. That crime is a felony and carries up to 10 years on prison and registration as a sex offender for life.
So, when Chris first came to me, the case was extremely serious. A 20-year-old man in a legal relationship with a 16-year-old female, and the District Attorney's office decides that they're going to charge him with a registrable offense.
As we started working on the defense of this case, even though we knew that the state of Oklahoma had our client dead to rights as far as the communication and the photographs go, our goal in this, barring the state dismissing it, of course, was to negotiate terms that did not require prison, a felony conviction or registration as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Of those goals, probably the third, the registration as a sex offender, is what concerned my client the most. Although Chris might have to do possibly some prison time, or he might have to do some type of probation, that registration as a sex offender was for the rest of his life, and at 20 years old, man, that's a very long sentence.
So, we implemented our 10-step defense system, and we worked through all 10 of those steps in excruciating detail. As we worked through the Berlin Defense, beyond just the natural and identifiable mitigation that we found in the case, we also found a number of problems with the state's evidence. So we started to communicate with the state of Oklahoma that they had some significant evidentiary obstacles and burdens that they might not be able to overcome.
Through a course of communication, research and motion practice, we convinced the state of Oklahoma to agree to dismiss the sex case, to dismiss that very heinous, horrible felony charge and replace it with a reduced felony charge that is not a registrable offense, is not a violent felony, and is simply styled as using or accessing a computer to violate some Oklahoma statute.
In addition to that, we not only kept him out of prison, but we also kept a conviction as a sex offender off of his record for life. He was able to obtain a short-deferred sentence, very small fines and costs, and supervision by the Department of Corrections that is limited to only two years.
So, at the end of the day, the client starts out with something that could result in 10 years in prison and registration as a sex offender for the rest of his life. The conclusion of it is a five-year deferred sentence with only two years of it to be supervised, no prison and at the end, as long as he successfully completes his probation, his case will be dismissed, and his court records will be expunged.

Have You Been Charged With a Sex Crime in the Tulsa, OK Area?

If you or a loved one has been charged with a sex crime in the Tulsa, Oklahoma area you need to speak with an experienced Oklahoma sex crimes lawyer as soon as possible. Please contact us online or call 913.384.0850 for your free consultation. We are proud to serve Tulsa and all surrounding areas.