Sexual Harassment

[Mesiah / haiseM]

Today, i was dragged out of bed at 9am, and taken to the judge where i was arrested and convicted of Sexual Harrassment in the second degree, and Endangering the welfare of a minor.

To make a long story short, there is this 13 year old girl, and i am 18, i snuck over to her house a few times while the family was sleeping, and listened to music, etc etc.

This girls entire family is entirely corrupted by drugs and alcohol, and i only fear that she will grow into these habitats as well. I never touched her sexually, nor "deep" kissed her. She is an incredibly smart person for a 13 year old, and it amazes me her potential. But by having these surroundings, i know it will just be another life down to drain. I love her kind of like a father, i only want to help her stay away from these things, have a future, have dreams, and do my best to see them come true.

Her mother must have told her to fill out a statement saying i did, because the statement against me said "He kissed me through my bra, and gave me a hickey" For one, id like to know how that is possible, and for another, it never happened.

Since i am 18 and this is my first criminal conviction, i applied for Youth Offender Status, to keep the hearing and everything private. The only downside is i do not get a trial by jury. I have a lawyer that ill be paying out of my ass for.

But i'd like to know if any of you hardcore legal experts have any advice, opinions, or anything at all to help me.

I work at burger king, making about 100 bucks a week, and i have to pay my family back for the 800 dollar bail that was set.

Also, there is an order of protection against me that forbids me any contact with her or her mother.

Help me out guys, i could be facing 2 years in the big house...

[iago]

In this case, it sounds to me like honesty is the best policy.  What you did was for obviously good reasons, so, unlike cuphead, you have morallity to fall back on.

But I'm no legal expert; I'm sure somebody else could be a bigger help.

[Denial]

Well heres some advice, If you can prove her family and everything around her is like corrupted and such with drugs.  Then you have a case. Honesty is the key tell them why you were over there and why you are worried about her and that you never did sexual stuff with her. Tell about your concern. . If she has a hickey who did she get it from? Im not sure if it's illegal to sneak into her house at night because the parents never said you couldn't and you were visiting someone that lived in that house who said you could come over.

Prove it wasn't you who was "Endangering the welfare of a minor" but it was her surroundings that was endangering her and you were only helping her as a friend

Im not sure if you could get the family tested for drug tests but it could be something you could bring up to your lawyer.

You need Also people to stuck up for you. Respectable people it depends what type of trial this is. If they allow witnesses or not.

He kissed me through my bra, and gave me a hickey"
- They have to prove this that it was you. wouldn't there be teeth marks on the bra?

Right now it is your word against theirs yours.

[K]

Right now it is your word against theirs yours.

And this is a very bad thing.  We all know who is favored in male vs female sexual harrassment cases, whether for a good reason or not.  I agree with iago here.  I think you're going to want at least one good character witness, to prove your intentions.

Im not sure if it's illegal to sneak into her house at night because the parents never said you couldn't and you were visiting someone that lived in that house who said you could come over.

Most likely illegal.  She may have said he could come over, but she's well under 18.  It's not her prerogative to invite people into the house.

Im not sure if you could get the family tested for drug tests but it could be something you could bring up to your lawyer.

Probably not; her family isn't on trial.  However, if her mother has a felony drug or any other conviction, she (AFAIK) cannot testify.

Good luck.  Sounds like you'll need it.

[Mesiah / haiseM]

The part about entering the house, is not illegal, otherwise they would have hit me with that too.

I do have friends and family who know her family quite well, and would be willing to testify of my good intentions and such.

About the hickey, she has no hickey. She was most likely forced into saying this. I mean come on, how can you give somebody a hickey, THROUGH there bra?

And i just got done talking to my lawyer. He says as long as i never did force her or touch her into doing anything sexual, which i never did, there should be no problem fighting that off.

He also pointed out that the judge never asked me for my plea, especially since there wasnt a lawyer present at the time of the arrest, i dont know if that will contribute to anything, but hey, anything works.

Thanks alot guys, keep it comin!

[Mitosis]

This really sucks man. I think what Denail said you should probably do. If you could get a bit of an arguement that her family has drugs lieing around, I think the jury might side with you. Good luck man.

[Newby]

Sounds like the parents don't like you.  

As long as you didn't do anything .. tell the truth and tell them how corrupted the parents are. You should win!

[Denial]

This really sucks man. I think what Denail said you should probably do. If you could get a bit of an arguement that her family has drugs lieing around, I think the jury might side with you. Good luck man.

First of all there will be no jury he said read orignal post.

Secondly If your going to say someones name get it right D E N I A L -1!

[Hazard]

As a legal aid to a family friend who is a criminal attorney I'll give you some advice from some things I have learned. You have an extremely serious situation on your hands, that should go without saying. The appearance of inpropriety between an 18 your old young man and a 13 year old girl is extremely damaging to most judges. There are several means you might talk to your lawyer about as possibilites, however.

One possibility is to attack the charge in itself. Somehow you need to establish that the claims made by the girl or her mother in their statments were false. The lack of evidence in this situation does bode well for you. There are no such pictures of this "hickey" (I assume) and if you can establish reasonable doubt then you have got it made.

You had never "deep" kissed her before? What in the hell does that mean? As they say in the south, "That dog won't hunt" as an argument in a court of law.

Another possibility is to argue intervention for the welfare of the girl and throw yourself on the mercy of the court. If you admit that the situation wasn't very clean cut, and your judgment to be in the house unsupervised was mis-placed, but you provide character witnesses to corroborate your morals then you can also establish reasonable doubt.

Your story of just trying to help the girl out seems like a vain plea... and it might not fly with a judge so you have to be careful. I'm sure the judge will be able to say "Yea... like I've never heard this one before." Don't bother using the argument that you don't think it's possible to give a hickey through a bra, it won't help.

There was no lawyer present at your arrest and at the time of your arraignment? Did you request a lawyer? Were you read your miranda rights? If not then you're off the hook, it's unlawful arrest.

Your actions, quite simply, were stupid. You should have known better than to put yourself into that situation. The fact is, that girl is 13 years old no matter how old or mature she might be beneath the surface. You simply should have known better. There are many other ways of intervention. An anonymous tip to the police, a call to social services or child welfare, a tip to a school counselor. All of these actions would have been far more logical and wouldn't have caused you any trouble. If you need more advice you can let me know and I can help you in any way I can.

[muert0]

But he cant attack the family or her right?

And it sounds like hes at the mercy of the court anyway.

The thing about you working at burgerking and having to pay your parents and possiblly a lawyer really sucks, I know because i got arrested for some really stupid shit a few years back. I had to pay a lawyer $500 a week for ten weeks then pay a loan off for my mom to pay her back for bailing me out.
My only suggestion is get two jobs if you have to. good luck

[Arta]

As Hazard said, is there any evidence? If there was never any hickey, and therefore never any photo, isn't that case closed?

I think honesty is the best policy as well. If the family has a drug habit, and the daughter doesn't, and you were tying to keep her out of it, that could have led to other people finding out about the family's problems - and that leads to motive for the mother (or whoever) to fabricate a charge for the purposes of getting rid of you. Combined with the (assumed) lack of evidence that sounds fairly clear-cut to me.

Then again, I'm by no means a legal person