Orlando Criminal Lawyer Blog
Sexual crimes in the state of Florida are very serious and must be thoroughly investigated by your attorney either prior to being charged or arrested or after you are charged or arrested. The first question we look at is what the State Attorney’s process is in deciding who gets investigated for a sex crime and who ultimately gets charged or arrested.
The short answer is the state attorney will charge someone with a sex crime from the evidence or facts they believe to be true at the time. An investigation can start when a citizen calls or files a complaint against a person who may have committed a sex crime. An example would be an adult inappropriately touching a minor and another person saw this and called the police. In this scenario, the police will immediately contact the potential wrongdoer either by phone or in person. Another example would be photographs of illegal sexual activity that were discovered and someone turned them over to law enforcement.
In either scenario, at this point, if you agree to speak with law enforcement, your testimony will be used against you, and you can be misinterpreted or tricked into making a confession. Once this is done it is very difficult to undo it. It is more beneficial for the accused to have an attorney to act as a go-between the accused and law enforcement. Your attorney may be able to relay information through an investigation to the State Attorney with the goal of not being charged at all or receiving a lesser charge.