- Jurisdiction
- New York
Hi,
First thank you in advance to anyone willing to share their experience and knowledge of the law and how the legal system works and the tactics they use. The reason for this post is to get the opinions of any lawyers or people who have worked in/have experience with the US legal system. This will be a long post as I give you some background info and let know what has transpired thus far.
To begin with, my family has been close with our neighboring family for about 12 years now. The neighboring family has a daughter A and she has a girl child B (about 12). A is an adult and has a tendency to date many guys and have her kids living with them. For the past year A has fallen out with her family and doesn't speak with them anymore.
In April my uncle received a phone call from A stating that B said he sexually abused her and that if he just admits it to her on the phone that it will be ok and no one would know and that all she wanted to hear from him is an apology. Our public defender lawyer stated to us that this was most likely a "controlled call" and that they were recording it with a detective listening. This was the first time my uncle became aware of such an accusation. Later that week a detective called my uncle and stated they wanted him to come down to their office so they can ask him some questions.
My uncle is about 65 and he's the type of person that would fall for one of those "you've won a million dollars, just send us your bank info" scams. He never told us about the accusation and that he was going to meet the detective. The day he went to meet the detective, they arrested him and charged him with about 3 misdemeanors and 1 felony of sex abuse. He later told us about the call and said that he never admitted to anything.
From since April to now, every time he goes to court, the DA asks for an extension. Our public defends states they can keep asking for an extension for up to 6 months and if they don't call a grand jury after 6 months the case will be dismissed. This week he went to court and the DA asked for another extension. Our PD states that in November the 6 months would be up.
However, after the last court date, our PD called to say that she received a plea deal from the DA. The DA is offering a misdemeanor charge of child endangerment with 2 yrs of probation. I was in the room with my uncle and the public defender as she explained the terms to him.
Now I know for a fact that child B's immediate relatives, her grandmother, her aunts her uncles all refused to assist the DA and have sided with us. Our PD says that it is also unclear whether Child B and her mom A is even co-operating with the DA. The DA has not turned over anything to us except for a 2 yr time frame where they say child B claimed to have been abused by my uncle. No exact dates, no places, nothing at all that we can use to put together a defense.
In the meeting with the PD, my opinion of her as she was explaining the process and current status quo of child sex abuse cases was that she wanted him to take the plea deal. She said that in cases like this where it's the child's word over his that they will almost always side with the child. She said that if the case goes to a grand jury the child will have to testify in front of the grand jury and the jury will then decide based on her testimony if to indict or not.
Now before she continued I asked her why would they offer him probation if he's accused of such a horrendous crime and she said that the DA didn't want to have to put the child to testify in front of the grand jury because she will be in front of strangers having to describe what happened to her. She continued to describe another case that she had where the child accused one man of sex abuse but they had DNA evidence that it was another man and the first guy still got convicted. And other case where a child stated a specific date an incident occurred and she had a rock-solid alibi for the guy and the child said she made a mistake on the date and the guy got convicted. She said that the reason the DA gave a 2 year time frame was because the child would be able to chose any date between that time frame and even if we could prove for example that my uncle wasn't even in the country on that date, the child can change her mind about the date and the jury would allow/be lenient with her.
I personally have no background in law and so far I can only take the PD's explanations but it seems to me that the DA is just trying to get the case over with and the PD doesn't want to go to trial.
First thank you in advance to anyone willing to share their experience and knowledge of the law and how the legal system works and the tactics they use. The reason for this post is to get the opinions of any lawyers or people who have worked in/have experience with the US legal system. This will be a long post as I give you some background info and let know what has transpired thus far.
To begin with, my family has been close with our neighboring family for about 12 years now. The neighboring family has a daughter A and she has a girl child B (about 12). A is an adult and has a tendency to date many guys and have her kids living with them. For the past year A has fallen out with her family and doesn't speak with them anymore.
In April my uncle received a phone call from A stating that B said he sexually abused her and that if he just admits it to her on the phone that it will be ok and no one would know and that all she wanted to hear from him is an apology. Our public defender lawyer stated to us that this was most likely a "controlled call" and that they were recording it with a detective listening. This was the first time my uncle became aware of such an accusation. Later that week a detective called my uncle and stated they wanted him to come down to their office so they can ask him some questions.
My uncle is about 65 and he's the type of person that would fall for one of those "you've won a million dollars, just send us your bank info" scams. He never told us about the accusation and that he was going to meet the detective. The day he went to meet the detective, they arrested him and charged him with about 3 misdemeanors and 1 felony of sex abuse. He later told us about the call and said that he never admitted to anything.
From since April to now, every time he goes to court, the DA asks for an extension. Our public defends states they can keep asking for an extension for up to 6 months and if they don't call a grand jury after 6 months the case will be dismissed. This week he went to court and the DA asked for another extension. Our PD states that in November the 6 months would be up.
However, after the last court date, our PD called to say that she received a plea deal from the DA. The DA is offering a misdemeanor charge of child endangerment with 2 yrs of probation. I was in the room with my uncle and the public defender as she explained the terms to him.
Now I know for a fact that child B's immediate relatives, her grandmother, her aunts her uncles all refused to assist the DA and have sided with us. Our PD says that it is also unclear whether Child B and her mom A is even co-operating with the DA. The DA has not turned over anything to us except for a 2 yr time frame where they say child B claimed to have been abused by my uncle. No exact dates, no places, nothing at all that we can use to put together a defense.
In the meeting with the PD, my opinion of her as she was explaining the process and current status quo of child sex abuse cases was that she wanted him to take the plea deal. She said that in cases like this where it's the child's word over his that they will almost always side with the child. She said that if the case goes to a grand jury the child will have to testify in front of the grand jury and the jury will then decide based on her testimony if to indict or not.
Now before she continued I asked her why would they offer him probation if he's accused of such a horrendous crime and she said that the DA didn't want to have to put the child to testify in front of the grand jury because she will be in front of strangers having to describe what happened to her. She continued to describe another case that she had where the child accused one man of sex abuse but they had DNA evidence that it was another man and the first guy still got convicted. And other case where a child stated a specific date an incident occurred and she had a rock-solid alibi for the guy and the child said she made a mistake on the date and the guy got convicted. She said that the reason the DA gave a 2 year time frame was because the child would be able to chose any date between that time frame and even if we could prove for example that my uncle wasn't even in the country on that date, the child can change her mind about the date and the jury would allow/be lenient with her.
I personally have no background in law and so far I can only take the PD's explanations but it seems to me that the DA is just trying to get the case over with and the PD doesn't want to go to trial.
