Why is Hiring an Attorney Early in the Process of a Sex Crimes Case Important?

Hiring an attorney early in the process is important for several reasons.

1. First, if you haven’t been formally charged with a sex crime or, as Michigan calls it, criminal sexual conduct, a good attorney can intervene and try to prevent charges from ever being filed. We call this part of the situation in the pre-charge phase. In this phase, someone has been informed by somebody, possibly the alleged victim, that the alleged victim or the family intends on filing a police report. In some cases, we’ve helped people in the pre-charge phase avoid the stress and embarrassment of long and public proceedings in court because we could show detectives and prosecutors that there is not enough evidence to even charge our client with criminal sexual conduct.
2. Hiring an attorney early in a Criminal Sexual Conduct case is important because in most sex crimes cases, police will try to interview the accused person. In this interview, the investigator will ask questions that can be designed to elicit incriminating responses. Even though the person may be innocent of a sex crime, that person may give an answer that can incriminate him or her. One should NEVER speak to the police about a criminal situation, ESPECIALLY a criminal sexual conduct crime, without an attorney because an attorney can spot these issues in the interview and advise innocent clients not to respond.
3. Finally, if the police collect enough evidence to charge someone with a crime, they can arrest that person, usually at their home or work. This obviously would be extremely embarrassing, especially if the arrest happened in front of children, neighbors, or co-workers. A good attorney would try to prevent this from happening by arranging with police or the prosecutor for their client to walk into court or the police department to be arraigned or booked without having to be hauled in without notice.

Call a dedicated attorney right away to start working on your defense.