There are two types of people accused of sex offenses: those with a serious problem because of what they did, and those with a serious problem because they are innocent of the accusations. Even when a person is proven innocent, the taint of the accusation often lingers far longer than the news of the person's vindication.
In the current political climate, allegations of sexual abuse are devastating, and if convicted, the penalties may be life-ending. In the last legislative session, David Gonzalez and Kristin Etter worked with a coalition of groups in an attempt to convince the legislature that it is unconstitutional to impose the death penalty in child sex abuse cases. While the Legislature overwhelming ignored their arguments, the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association worked to implement as many procedural safeguards as possible, working to prevent passage of bills that would allow almost any uncorrobated statement to be introduced into evidence and create entirely new exceptions to the rules of evidence.
Over the years the Firm has handled numerous cases in which the initial allegations of sexual abuse have proven to be unfounded. When parents are going through a divorce, when a child has been abused by another family member, or when well-meaning but poorly trained caseworkers encourages recollections of events that never occurred, there is significant reason to question the credibility of the allegation. When these situations arise, we work very hard - very fast - to disprove the allegations before the case is presented to the grand jury. Under the recent legislative changes passed as part of Jessica's Law, there is no longer a statute of limitations on sex offenses. Given the Supreme Court's recent decision on expunctions, this effectively means that any person indicted but innocent of a sex offense may not be able remove this false allegation from his criminal record.