Facing Criminal Sexual Conduct in Michigan and Innocent? AVOID JAIL!

By Oakland County Criminal Sexual Conduct Attorney

| August 17, 2019

The only thing worse than being accused and charged with Criminal Sexual Conduct (CSC) and other Sex Crimes is being accused of CSC and 100% innocent - and it happens every day. These are the exact people who we seek as our clients at Prain Law, PLLC. But even before you get a CSC Defense Attorney, you'll need to start practicing the principles below in order to avoid Jail or Prison. Too many innocent people make the mistake of believing that because they are innocent, they won't need to be as cautious as he truly guilty, because after all, the Court system will achieve truth and justice, right? Well, we hope so (ultimately). But in the meantime, here are some best practices to maximize your chances of beating the case...

STOP TALKING TO ANYONE WHO ISN'T AN ATTORNEY. Everyone hears the phrase "Don't speak to Police. Exercise your right to remain silent." This is absolutely true because even when you assert your innocence, the Michigan hearsay laws are structured so that your words can't really help you, but definitely could be used to hurt you. The other half of protecting your freedom through silence when you're charged with Criminal Sexual Conduct is this: Don't speak to ANYONE who is not an Attorney with whom you can rely on confidentiality and the Attorney-Client Privilege. Any other person in the world who you say anything to about your case could be called as a witness against you and forced to testify about what yousupposedly said. This is obvious if you're dealing with someone who may be upset with you or wants to harm you, but even people who mean well like family members may not interpret and remember conversations correctly, or they may think they're helping you when they don't understand the legal impact that certain alleged statements may have. There is nothing, and we mean nothing, that puts more innocent people in Prison for Criminal Sexual Conduct than their own words being twisted or taken out of context. The only way to protect yourself from a tragedy like this is to resist the urge to say a single word about your case to anyone.

START TALKING TO AN EXPERIENCED CRIMINAL SEXUAL CONDUCT DEFENSE ATTORNEY. This is the only type of person you should be talking to about your case - an experienced Michigan Criminal Sexual Conduct Defense Attorney. You might be thinking "How convenient that a CSC Lawyer would be telling me that I must not talk to anyone besides a CSC Lawyer." But the reality is, even if you were delusional enough to think you were going to somehow become superhuman and put aside all of your thoughts, emotions, and fears and successfully represent yourself against CSC charges, you would still want to talk to a CSC Defense Attorney who knows the ropes. Within the entire realm of Criminal Defense law and criminal charges, Criminal Sexual Conduct cases are so unique and specialized that they truly deserve their own category; child forensic interviews like CARE House of Oakland and Macomb Counties and Kids Talk of Wayne County, DNA and other scientific evidence, expert witnesses, SANE Examinations and Rape Kits, Rape Shield laws and deadlines for Motion filing...the list goes on. If you were going to repair your own car, you'd at least have a Chilton's manual on hand. When you're facing CSC charges, you simply can't afford to fall into the many pitfalls that could be fatal to your defense. Educating yourself is an absolute necessity.

DON'T HIDE FROM THE FACTS. Due to the fact that Criminal Sexual Conduct charges stand-out among all criminal charges because they are so serious and the penalties go beyond just Jail or Prison (i.e. Sex Offender Registration, "SORA"), it's not unnatural for the accused to be inclined to adopt a "bury your head in the sand" mentality to help deal with the pressure, therefore choosing momentary comfort and blissful ignorance at the cost of avoiding critical knowledge and understanding about your circumstances and the future. If you were a soldier at war and lost in a dark forest deep within enemy territory, you'd wish you had a map outlining all of the dangers that lay ahead in the field - not so you could suffer an anxiety attack about the landmine in your path, but rather so you could avoid it. Yes, when you hear that First Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct is a life offense, it sends a momentary rush of adrenaline through your core. True, Second Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct and Third Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct can send someone to Prison for up to 15 years just based on "hearsay." And no one will deny that even Fourth Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct is life-altering. We all know that intense feeling of "fight or flight" hormones rushing through our body when we first learn that we're facing a very serious situation, but we also know that that feeling evaporates almost as quickly as it comes, and all we're left with after that is the knowledge that can help us make the right decisions at those moments in every CSC case where the Defendant has to make an important decision (whether to take a plea or go to trial, whether to testify or not, etc.). Invest in your freedom and future on a well-informed basis having all the facts and data you would if you were investing in a stock or business opportunity.

AVOID THE TRAP OF MISTAKING YOUR INNOCENCE FOR A LEGAL ADVANTAGE; YOU'RE ENTERING A WORLD WHERE TRUTH IS SECONDARY. Each day, at Prain Law, PLLC, we speak with frightened people facing CSC charges whose thought process seems to work something like this: "I did not commit the Sex Crime that I am accused of, I know in my heart that I am innocent. Therefore, I don't need to put as much effort into my defense as someone who is clearly guilty. I know that once I get my story out in the legal system, the Prosecutor will recognize that I am being falsely accused. I trust that the legal system will work properly and vindicate me." And that is completely natural, because we trust and even expect that our legal system will seek truth and produce just outcomes. Yet every day, we read in the papers about some poor soul who was wrongfully convicted of Rape, Criminal Sexual Conduct, or some other Sex Crime and spent decades in Prison before the mistake was corrected. In-fact, this phenomenon has become so prevalent that it's finally making waves in pop culture, such as the Netflix series Making a Murderer and the new box-office movie Brian Banks, the true story of a young football star ruined when he was wrongfully convicted of Rape. We all marvel at how terrible these cases are, as if these occurrences are a rare anomaly. We never ask ourselves "How did this happen in the first place? How many other stories are there that we're just not hearing?' Here's the reality: your accuser is saying you committed Criminal Sexual Conduct, and you are denying it. The Prosecution has chosen to charge you with CSC despite your denial, which they already anticipated. This makes your case legally indistinguishable from every other case where the accused is actually guilty. In most cases, It's your word versus theirs. You are up against a Prosecutor's Office, a political Office, which has bigger concerns than doing right by you. The truth is largely irrelevant to how you should approach your case. Once you accept these facts, you're on the path to salvation by avoiding weeks and months of destructive anger and frustration. And overall, please don't make the mistake of thinking that your defense should be any less vigorous, or your CSC Attorney anything less than the absolute best, simply because you are innocent.

DON'T LOSE SIGHT OF THE END GOAL, BUT TAKE THE CASE ONE STEP AT A TIME. The Michigan Criminal Sexual Conduct court process can be a long one, especially if you're fighting hard as you should be. There may be a tendency to worry about the end of the process, the trial (if there is one). But you must remember when you're at Arraignment, focus on getting the lowest possible Bond. When you're at the Probable Cause Conference, focus on getting all of the Police Reports and other discovery. When you're at Preliminary Exam, focus on locking the witnesses down in their testimony. And so on... Do this knowing that by taking each step at a time and always staying present in the moment and the issue at hand, you're stacking-up the chips in your favor toward the end-goal of being found NOT GUILTY of Criminal Sexual Conduct and having your life back!

Michigan CSC Attorney Brian J. Prain of Prain Law, PLLC concentrates his practice specifically on defending those accused of Criminal Sexual Conduct in Michigan and a few other assaultive crimes. No DUIs, no drugs, no retail fraud, burglary, etc. We handle cases like yours every single day. With an impressive record of victories time and time again, Brian has been recognized as one of the:

If you or someone you know is facing Criminal Sexual Conduct or other Sex Crimes charges in Michigan, contact Prain Law, PLLC at (248) 731-4543 or via our email Contact Form.

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