- Jurisdiction
- Washington
I will try to summarize my situation as best I can.
Following a harsh divorce last year, my mental health went in a spiral and I ended up homeless. I got myself off the streets and into a living sober home. After a month I was helping my friend move. I went outside to smoke at 5 in the morning, I left the gates of the neighborhood just so no one would see me later and about and be suspicious a prowler. I was concentrating heavily on my phone, editing some writing i had done because my son wanted to read it when the cops surrounded me. They told me as someone said I was doing something inappropriate. At first the officer was nonchalant and admitted sometimes people think they see things and he let me go. I told him where my friends house was if he had anymore questions. An hour later I walked down to the gas station to get a drink and the police surrounded me again. This time they arrested and charged me with indecent exposure. The allegation was that I was masturbating.
Because of this charge I lost my living sober home, my new job I just started, and a chance to see my kids for the first time in over a year. The backstory is important to understanding my innocence. I've since been homeless for a year as I have been afraid to go to trial because of what the jury might think of a homeless man who hasn't seen his kids in a year, and being convicted as a sex offender is not something I can risk, else I will never be an engineer again.
My first public defender said he very rarely had clients who he believed, and he actually believed me. He said he knew the DA and was going to submit the evidence I had given him to see if she will drop the charges. Less than a week later he abruptly retired without any explanation or communication.
Since then I have been passed off to two different public defenders. I submitted the evidence to them both and have gotten very little response. The rest of my life is dependent on the outcome of this charge. The only thing I have left to look forward in life is engineering again and coaching my daughter's softball team. Both things I will not be able to do if I'm convicted.
Now for the evidence that I submitted:
I've been physically impotent for more than 2 years and have medical records from my counselors and family physician to prove it. The impotence is from the depression for my divorce, the antidepressants I've had to take, as well as Suboxone which is an opiate to manage my drug addiction recovery. It is not physically possible for me to perform the act that this person claims she witnessed.
When I left the gate of the community, I sat on the outer part of the gate with my back turned to the houses, where the witness allegedly viewed me from. She did not have a frontal view of me either way.
And for 44 years, I have never so much as had an office complaint filed against me for anything sexually related. No charges, nothing. I find it hard to believe that any man at 44 years old will all of a sudden behave in such a way.
With my mental illness and anxiety levels, you couldn't pay me enough money to commit such a bold act in public.
A year ago I lost everything, including my four children. Every minute of every day I have been focused on trying to get some kind of life back. I assure you I would not be putting that in jeopardy by doing something so stupid, and pointless given my impotence.
You can pick any person who has known me in my life and put them on the stand and they will tell you there is no way I would do something like this. It is not in my DNA. More importantly I have decades of mental health records that will show that while I do have a wide range of mental illness, anything sexual related is most definitely not part of it. In fact, it is the opposite.
I'm a pretty smart man. If I had done what this person who alleges and was let go by the police, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be smart enough to not go walking down the road to the gas station an hour later.
There's actually a couple more points to my defense I did not include, including such dishonesty by the arresting officer that is contradicted by his partner.
I guess my questions are, would this be considered enough for any reasonable DA to drop the charges? Why would they be so insistent on prosecuting someone who's never been charged with a crime before? Is the fact I've been homeless for the past year and unable to manage my defense or prepare for my defense mean anything to the court or any legal proceedings? What rights do I have and what resources are there for me? This is a question I've asked my lawyer several times and got no answer. And is the only way I'm going to get these charges dropped somehow is by finding a pro bono lawyer whose worth his salt to represent me? Is it something I have any chance of getting a public defender to perform well on or execute?
Thank you.
Following a harsh divorce last year, my mental health went in a spiral and I ended up homeless. I got myself off the streets and into a living sober home. After a month I was helping my friend move. I went outside to smoke at 5 in the morning, I left the gates of the neighborhood just so no one would see me later and about and be suspicious a prowler. I was concentrating heavily on my phone, editing some writing i had done because my son wanted to read it when the cops surrounded me. They told me as someone said I was doing something inappropriate. At first the officer was nonchalant and admitted sometimes people think they see things and he let me go. I told him where my friends house was if he had anymore questions. An hour later I walked down to the gas station to get a drink and the police surrounded me again. This time they arrested and charged me with indecent exposure. The allegation was that I was masturbating.
Because of this charge I lost my living sober home, my new job I just started, and a chance to see my kids for the first time in over a year. The backstory is important to understanding my innocence. I've since been homeless for a year as I have been afraid to go to trial because of what the jury might think of a homeless man who hasn't seen his kids in a year, and being convicted as a sex offender is not something I can risk, else I will never be an engineer again.
My first public defender said he very rarely had clients who he believed, and he actually believed me. He said he knew the DA and was going to submit the evidence I had given him to see if she will drop the charges. Less than a week later he abruptly retired without any explanation or communication.
Since then I have been passed off to two different public defenders. I submitted the evidence to them both and have gotten very little response. The rest of my life is dependent on the outcome of this charge. The only thing I have left to look forward in life is engineering again and coaching my daughter's softball team. Both things I will not be able to do if I'm convicted.
Now for the evidence that I submitted:
I've been physically impotent for more than 2 years and have medical records from my counselors and family physician to prove it. The impotence is from the depression for my divorce, the antidepressants I've had to take, as well as Suboxone which is an opiate to manage my drug addiction recovery. It is not physically possible for me to perform the act that this person claims she witnessed.
When I left the gate of the community, I sat on the outer part of the gate with my back turned to the houses, where the witness allegedly viewed me from. She did not have a frontal view of me either way.
And for 44 years, I have never so much as had an office complaint filed against me for anything sexually related. No charges, nothing. I find it hard to believe that any man at 44 years old will all of a sudden behave in such a way.
With my mental illness and anxiety levels, you couldn't pay me enough money to commit such a bold act in public.
A year ago I lost everything, including my four children. Every minute of every day I have been focused on trying to get some kind of life back. I assure you I would not be putting that in jeopardy by doing something so stupid, and pointless given my impotence.
You can pick any person who has known me in my life and put them on the stand and they will tell you there is no way I would do something like this. It is not in my DNA. More importantly I have decades of mental health records that will show that while I do have a wide range of mental illness, anything sexual related is most definitely not part of it. In fact, it is the opposite.
I'm a pretty smart man. If I had done what this person who alleges and was let go by the police, I'm pretty sure I'm going to be smart enough to not go walking down the road to the gas station an hour later.
There's actually a couple more points to my defense I did not include, including such dishonesty by the arresting officer that is contradicted by his partner.
I guess my questions are, would this be considered enough for any reasonable DA to drop the charges? Why would they be so insistent on prosecuting someone who's never been charged with a crime before? Is the fact I've been homeless for the past year and unable to manage my defense or prepare for my defense mean anything to the court or any legal proceedings? What rights do I have and what resources are there for me? This is a question I've asked my lawyer several times and got no answer. And is the only way I'm going to get these charges dropped somehow is by finding a pro bono lawyer whose worth his salt to represent me? Is it something I have any chance of getting a public defender to perform well on or execute?
Thank you.