Felony Criminal Sexual Conduct CSC Charges Dropped

In this case, our client was initially charged with 3 counts of Criminal Sexual Conduct (CSC) 3^rd degree pursuant to Michigan Complied Laws Section 750.520d. The "victim's" mother contacted the police to initiate the investigation and seek the felony charges. The mother's allegations in this case claimed that there was sexual penetration of a minor under 16 years of age. As provided by Michigan law, this charge is based upon the age of the ‘victim' regardless of the age of the "perpetrator" who can also be under age.

After talking to several different lawyers and law firms, this client and his family settled on the Barone Defense Firm. They did so after speaking directly with attorney Michael Boyle who helped them understand the charges and how he would help them present a defense. Mr. Boyle also answered all their questions about how the criminal justice system worked in general.

When this initial interview and conversation took place, our client had already been arrested. Also, prior to retaining the Barone Defense Firm, our client had appeared in court for his arraignment. At this arraignment, where he was not represented by a lawyer, a high cash bond had been set. Unfortunately, because we'd not been retained yet, Mr. Boyle was not able to help persuade the court at the arraignment to keep his client out on bond.

Although our client remained in custody during our investigation, Mr. Boyle was nevertheless able to obtain and review all of the discovery with him. Mr. Boyle was also able to separately obtain all of our client's phone records and social media communications. Through Mr. Boyle's investigation he was able to uncover inconsistencies in the ‘story' being told to the police.

At the preliminary examination, Mr. Boyle was able to successfully use what he'd learned during his independent investigation of the incident, and armed with this information, Mr. Boyle was able to successfully persuade the prosecution to dismiss all 3 felony counts. Instead, the prosecutor agreed to add a new count of attempted 4^th degree CSC, which is a one-year misdemeanor, and our client agreed to plead guilty to this new added count, thereby avoiding a felony conviction and all of the penalties that go along with being a felon, including the possibility of a much longer prison sentence.