I told you, I didn't do it!
1.888.SHELLOW • MILWAUKEE, WI • 414.263.4488 • THE SHELLOW GROUP
I told you, I didn't do it!
That is what most people think everyone says who crosses the threshold of a criminal defense lawyer. News alert. That isn’t true. Many people acknowledge their guilt and want another chance to earn the respect of our Courts. Those are called sentencing cases and repairing the lives of those who have transgressed our laws is something for which I am passionate and humble.
But sometimes, they simply didn’t do it. Child sexual assault, or child molestation as some call it, is a crime where children often lie because prosecutors live by the axiom that no child ever lies about something that is so painful to disclose.
Kids lie about sexual assault because they are hurt. Often times, the accused is a favorite teacher who unknowingly said something that hit a raw nerve. Sometimes, kids lie because they have experienced a loss of a favorite grandmother and are not nurtured through the grieving process. Sometimes kids lie because their dad is leaving their mom and their sadness and anger is overwhelming. Kids also lie about neighbors, who to them look, act or sound strange. Kids lie about bus drivers who do not step in to stop them from being bullied.
Most of the time kids lie because their interviewers convey to them that they are victims who need love and protection, and feeling loved and protected feels good. Kids, in particular sad kids, relish any chance to feel good.
In the early days of my practice I spent years representing kids who lied all of the time. Kids who do not know bad facts from good facts. They feel as if good facts are those facts which make adults like them and trust them and make them feel good. The skills I obtained representing children make me uniquely qualified to read their thoughts.
Often criminal defense lawyers tell their clients, the jury will hate you for making the child testify. As a result, many good and decent and innocent people plead guilty or no-contest to crimes they did not commit only to find they are facing decades in prison and required to register as a sex offender for their entire adult lives.
Cross-examining children is not about slaying a dragon, but gaining their trust so the truth can come out.