CASE
EXPERIENCE
False Accusations of Child
Sexual Assault / Molestation
Milwaukee Sex Crimes Attorney
Recent studies have put the number of false accusations of child sexual assault as high as 28% when the accuser is under the age of 8 and the accused is in a custody-type dispute. When the accused is a professional, like a lawyer, doctor or teacher, the number of false accusations is almost as high.
Myth 1: Children never lie about abuse. Yes they do! Children are uniquely susceptible to suggestion and pick up cues about what answer the questioner wants them to give. Children learn by telling stories and guessing. Children under the age of 8 are more likely to answer a question with a guess. If the interviewer uses yes or no questions, a parent, a teacher or a pediatrician can be facing a jury based on the child's guess as to what the answer he or she is supposed to give.
Myth 2: The taped interview between the social worker and the child is admissible. Hire a lawyer who knows the law. Good lawyers know how to keep out the evidence the state wants to use to send the falsely accused father or teacher to prison. Pretrial motions are essential to limiting the bad evidence. If the trial lawyer doesn't try to keep evidence out that is properly excludible, you have waived the issue for an appeal. Hearsay is not admissible unless it meets specific criteria for trustworthiness and reliability. Hire a lawyer who knows the law. Every year hundreds of cases are decided on appeal that your lawyer can cite to help exclude the most damaging evidence against you. The Shellow Group reads and studies the case law that controls whether you win or lose.
Myth 3: If I hire a criminal defense attorney with a national reputation for fighting and winning, they'll think I am guilty. If you think you are going to be accused, hire a criminal lawyer now. Hoping you won't be charged or even having an alibi isn't good enough. Most states do not require the prosecution prove that an act occurred on a particular date. If you wait until you are charged with the unthinkable, you have lost valuable time and the opportunity to prevent the case from being charged in the first place. It is harder to get a prosecutor to drop a charge after the state has invested its time and energy in believing the child.
Myth 4: Expert Witnesses just confuse juries. The experts we choose help juries understand that the child who is mistaken or guessing is acting consistent with a normal child of his or her age.
Myth 5: If you cross-examine the child, the jury will hate you. Hire a lawyer who can develop a rapport with the child right there on the spot. In most situations, your lawyer will not have had a chance to interview or depose the child before trial. As a parent you will be the best source of information for the criminal lawyer to develop a rapport with the child. If you are their teacher or doctor, The Shellow Group in Milwaukee has in-house investigators and mental health professionals who will interview every person who has had contact with that child.
Myth 6: I didn't do it. She will recant. It will never go to trial. Recantations rarely occur and, if they do, they usually don't make the case against the accused go away.
Myth 7: I didn't do it. This case is a slam-dunk. When children are coached by adults who believe the false accusation, no child molestation allegation is a slam-dunk. Though the law presumes every accused person innocent, when the charge is child molestation, you have to hire a lawyer to prove your innocence. Hire a Milwaukee criminal attorney from the Shellow Group.
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