Teen Charged with Rape, Molestation Gets Deferred Sentence
DISCLAIMER: The results are specific to the facts and legal circumstances of each of the clients' cases and should not be used to form an expectation that the same results could be obtained for other clients in similar matters without reference to the specific factual and legal circumstances of each client's case.
JOSH C.
Josh came to me in, March of last year, and he had recently been arrested for first degree rape. Now this was because, supposedly, he was in a dating relationship with someone that was underage. A part of our problem with this though was Josh was still in high school, and Josh had just turned 18 years old. So, in just the days and week prior to this, he had been in a perfectly legal relationship. Josh reached the age of majority, and now his relationship magically has turned into something that is now illegal.
Now even though I could easily start to make out a defense, it's still a very serious matter. In this particular case, there were certain statements that were made by the girl when being questioned where later she fully recanted. The recantations that she made should have led the investigators and other members of law enforcement to believe that she had in fact consented to the sexual conduct. Regardless of the facts, my client was arrested for the rape, for forcible oral sodomy, sexual battery, lewd molestation, and basically everything but the kitchen sink.
After an extended investigation and defense preparation on our side, I met with the prosecutors. It was an out of county case, I knew the prosecutors, they had previously been prosecutors in Tulsa County, actually worked with me when I had been in the DA's office and started line of communication with them.
Although technically and statutorily the DA’s office has this kid dead to rights, is this really what the DA’s office want to do with an 18-year-old boy? I asked the hard questions of the prosecutor. Do you really want to end his life as he knows it even before it's gotten started? So we spent a lot of time building out the client, building out the mitigation, the factors which brought about the arrest, the interpersonal issues and familial issues that were happening with the female and her family, and why the accuser’s family so wanted to prosecute this young boy, which wasn't his fault but because of issues that the parents of the couple were having with each other.
Long story, but eventually we got the district attorney's office to agree not to file any of the sexual charges, and to not file any of the felonies, but instead to file the case as a misdemeanor. So, what happened is Josh wasn't even convicted of that. Josh was placed on 18 month deferred sentence, which means that the conclusion of the 18 months, he'll be allowed to withdraw his plea, and his case will be dismissed, and his court records will be expunged.
So this young man went from when he first came to me, staring down the barrel at three or more felony charges to an ultimate disposition of a plea to a misdemeanor where he received a 18 month deferred sentence which will be dismissed and expunged this year.
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