Practicing as a Michigan Criminal Sexual Conduct Attorney offers a completely different view of Criminal Sexual Conduct (CSC) cases than the view held by the general public and even most Criminal Defense Attorneys who don’t concentrate their practice on CSC cases. At Prain Law, PLLC, our practice is centered around defending those accused of Criminal Sexual Conduct in Michigan. Our unique perspective urges us to offer some advice to avoid being falsely accused over the 2020-2021 Holiday season.
When most people hear phrases such as “Criminal Sexual Conduct," Sex Crimes," "Sexual Assault,” and “Sexual Abuse,” their minds are instantly and automatically flooded with the exact same images that we are spoon-fed by entertainment TV and the news media: an image of a sociopathic rapist lurking in the shadows, just waiting to pounce on his next victim around every corner. And who can blame us for having those extreme images? They are constantly being woven into our subconscious from shows like "CSI, Special Victim Unit," and high-profile news stories about Jeffrey Epstein, Harvey Weinstein, and R Kelly.
(And just to get it out of the way first, we don’t represent those people. We aggressively represent those who we believe are falsely accused of Criminal Sexual Conduct and secure consistent verdicts of NOT GUILTY of CSC in jury trials in-front of juries of real citizens who live in the real world.).
Yet another thing that many people may not realize is that the Holiday season is a peak time for allegations of Criminal Sexual Conduct. Really, it’s no wonder to see why: (socially distanced) get togethers where excitement and emotions run high, all fueled by what the news media reports are extraordinarily high levels of alcohol consumption due to isolation, stress, and depression thanks to COVID and the ensuing lockdowns (we are fast approaching an entire year of this).
Now, you might be thinking “What does that have to do with me? I would never do something like sexually assault someone! Only horrible people would commit a crime like that! Why in the world would I be concerned with that?" And unless you’re like us and defending Michigan Criminal Sexual Conduct charges every day, here’s a fact that may have never crossed your mind (to quote the words of a good friend and colleague)...
“Actual innocence is not enough when you're accused of Sexual Assault these days. You must avoid the opportunity for an accusation in the first place.“
That’s excellent advice. There are many real victims of Sexual Assault, and there's no question they deserve justice - no one with a straight mind, their heart in the right place, and people they love and care about in their own lives would disagree with that. At the same time, because of the images painted in our minds by the media, it's a different world - the reality is, many innocent people ARE falsely accused (and convicted) of Criminal Sexual Conduct every year. You may remember it seemed like just a few years ago, we couldn't pick up a copy of the Detroit News or Free Press without seeing another article about some poor guy convicted of Rape or Child Molestation exonerated and released after 25 years in Prison because of new DNA evidence, or a lying, false accuser who the jury believed was finally exposed.
Nowadays, it seems like the only side of the story being told is about the alleged victims, and the Nation's consciousness was redirected toward the contrary-to-the-American-justice-system viewpoint that we should blindly "believe" every accuser or else we must be with the bad guys. That's just a very politically correct sounding way to say "Deny the Presumption of Innocence! It's guilty until proven innocent!" Just THINK about that for a moment...
But wait, what about these 25 year wrongly imprisoned guys? Are they not victims of the same system? Who speaks for them? Those decades are more than half some of these guys' ages. If someone can't acknowledge the injustice in that too, then we definitely wouldn't want them babysitting our kids or running our society. But that's what happens when we throw out the presumption of innocence.
AND HERE'S THE POINT: each one of those innocent guys has a long and painful story of how they got started down that awful road in the first place. And every single one of those stories is further proof of the quote from our colleague above. The fact of their exonerations itself proves the underlying premise that "Actual innocence is not enough. You must avoid the opportunity for an accusation in the first place."
Hopefully, by now we've convinced you that the topic fo false accusations of Criminal Sexual Conduct concerns EVERYONE, not just the TV criminals. And if so, then what this really gets down to is getting you to think about what it means to "avoid the opportunity for an accusation." Does it mean you cease being outgoing and living your life to it's fullest level of enjoyment? Of course not. You can't try to control the unfolding of events in life to such a degree that you 100% eliminate the possibility of a false accusation - there's always some possibility that something could go wrong in life completely outside your control.
Notice our friend didn't say you must "eliminate" the possibility for an accusation; you should avoid it. This means avoiding situations that tend to be common scenarios where accusations of CSC arise. We can't predict every possibility, so you'll have to exercise your own thoughtful judgment. But this is where our experience concentrating on Criminal Sexual Conduct defense can help, because we see the trends. Here are a few tips:
- If you're single and part of the dating scene, just avoid "one-night stand" type situations. If you don't find someone interesting enough to spend some actual time getting to know someone, are they really worth the risk? Emotionally charged situations can quickly escalate to sexual activity so quickly that it can cause regret later on, which can turn into a false Sexual Assault allegation.
- Don't have sex with a person who is clearly impaired by drugs or alcohol. What is, in reality, entirely consensual in the moment can easily turn into a charge of First Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct, Second Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct, or Third Degree Criminal Sexual Conduct in situations if an alleged victim doesn't remember what happened and therefore reasons the you must have taken advantage of them. This is not every case, and people do get taken advantage of unlawfully, but at the same time, these kind of false rationalizations also do really happen.
- Adults, be cautious around adolescents. In addition to being sexually curious, it is a well-known, scientifically researched fact that adolescents are an emotionally labile subgroup in our population. As a consequence of this stage of brain-development, along with family, peer, and other social influences and pressures (the need for attention, etc.), adolescent's are especially prone to making false accusations of Sexual Assault.