sexual abuse | Criminal Defense Lawyer | DWI, Drug, Theft & Assault Charges

Sexual Abuse Charges – Blog 1: The 40,000 Foot View

November 22, 2020

By Criminal Defense Lawyer Jeremy Rosenthal

(972) 369-0577

Few topics get more visceral reactions than the mention of sex crimes and charges – particularly when they involve children.

I explain to jurors this is precisely what makes sexual abuse charges a Petri dish for injustice. They involve very graphic and horrific abuse, if true. There are highly emotional victims, witnesses, advocates, lawyers and even jurors trying to hash-out highly subjective claims, evidence, and psychology with life-altering consequences.

This is why sex abuse charges are in many ways the ‘wild west’ of criminal law.

Focusing on the Big Picture First

Today I’m starting a series of blogs about sexual abuse cases. In condensing everything so it makes sense, I’m finding major gulfs between some of the more technical and legal aspects of sexual abuse cases and the clinical, practical and/or advocacy related issues.

There are common threads, patterns and themes which are common to abuse cases which span different types of legal charges and allegations.

For this reason, I think it makes sense to dedicate a series of blogs to the technical and legal aspects of child sexual abuse and then to discuss some of the over-arching common denominators to all of them and finally how we deal with those from the defense’ point of view.

Breaking it Down Further

In sum – I’m going to break down sex abuse law and advocacy into three main categories so hopefully it makes more sense:

Einstein – or the highly technical or legal aspects of sex abuse law;

Motzart – the highly subjective aspects of the often malleable evidence, psychology, and social aspects of the charges; and

Rocky – how we fight and advocate against the odds.