Long Island Sexual Assault Defense Attorney

If your spouse or partner or someone else has accused you of sexual assault, but you feel you did nothing to provoke the matter, you need an aggressive Long Island sexual assault defense attorney to fight this charge. Even if you only caused that person to fear harm, you can be charged.

What Constitutes Sexual Assault?

Sexual assault is defined in New York as engaging a person in sexual activity without that person’s consent. It can mean rape, child sexual abuse, or kissing or fondling someone without that person’s consent. The threat of such unwanted, nonconsensual sexual behavior can also constitute sexual assault. If you are charged with sexual assault on Long Island or in New York City, arrange at once to retain the services of an experienced Long Island criminal defense attorney.

The penalties can vary depending on the severity of the crime. For example, the crime of sexual abuse in New York is divided into two categories, erotic abuse and aggravated sexual abuse. There are three degrees of sexual abuse, and four degrees of aggravated sexual abuse. The degree of the offense represents the seriousness or severity of the offense under the law, with higher degrees being indicative of a less culpable form of sexual abuse than first degree. These crimes cover unwanted sexual contact by forcible compulsion, against a person incapable of providing consent, or with a person below a certain age.

Whatever form it takes, it can lead to a loss of trust by the people involved and by your friends and family. It can also seriously damage your reputation and create issues for your professional life as well. It may be difficult to find a business who is willing to take a chance on someone with a record of sexual assault. Because of this, it can make it hard to get a job, lead to a loss of income, and cause you to think of yourself as a bad person. If a child is involved, it can hinder that child’s emotional development. Victims may also file a civil suit against you to recover damages. As you can see, sexual assault can have a major impact on your present and future life. If you have been charged with sexual assault, seek representation from the attorneys at Mirsky Law Firm, who have experience defending clients in cases involving sex crimes.

Allegations of Sexual Assault

When one person accuses another of a serious sex crime, it can be difficult and awkward to suggest that the allegation might be fabricated. However, a criminal defense attorney with enough experience has seen it all, and attorneys know that all kinds of phony accusations are made in courtrooms throughout the United States. Legally speaking, you cannot be convicted of a sex crime or any other crime unless the state can prove your guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, but candidly and realistically, sex crime allegations can be tough to challenge for a number of reasons. Unless a defendant can plausibly explain why a false allegation would be made, a conviction is likely.

Perhaps, you just wanted to help out by watching your neighbor’s kids for them when they had to run errands. When they got home, their child told them you tucked them into bed and gave them a kiss goodnight. Now, the parents are livid, claiming you had no right to kiss their child, and they’re accusing you of erotic assault.

Why would someone falsely accuse someone else of a crime so heinous? If you are charged with erotic assault, a savvy criminal defense lawyer will quickly make an inventory of your accuser’s possible motives: jealousy, money, revenge, and pride – saving face. These are the sad, routine reasons why people fabricate sexual assault charges. When your defense attorney tells a jury that you’re not guilty, the jury will want an explanation, and your attorney will need to offer one.

A person accused of sexual assault, as well as any other crime in New York or the rest of the United States, is allowed to remain innocent until proven guilty. This means that a person is not guilty of an offense just because another has raised an accusation and not even because the police have been called to investigate a suspected sexual assault. A person is not guilty of sexual assault until guilt has been proven, beyond a reasonable doubt, and declared by a judge or jury, based on the facts and testimony provided in a case.

So long as your attorney is not perceived as “attacking the victim,” most jurors are willing to listen to your side of the story. But in the tough cases, the line between an aggressive defense and an inappropriate attack can become hard to discern during a trial. An attorney must be trained – and experienced – at interrogation and cross-examination in order to seek justice for their client. In fact, in sexual assault cases, your attorney’s training and experience can make all the difference in the result of your case.

What To Do If You’re Accused

The best thing that someone who has been accused of a sexual assault can do, aside from hiring an experienced New York sexual assault attorney to handle the allegations, is to remain silent. Contrary to popular belief, a person’s right to remain silent does not begin from the moment it is advised by police – the right is constant, perpetual, and permeates every instance of a person’s life. New York citizens always have the right to remain silent, which is, to say nothing at all regarding an accused offense.

In their efforts to talk themselves out of perceived trouble with law enforcement, many accused of sexual assault will say anything and everything they can think of to get the police to leave them alone. While an understandable impulse, trying to talk one’s way out of trouble with police is never advised. Police do not weigh facts, they only gather them. When statements are made to police, they are not being weighed against each other, they are simply being recorded for use against the accused in court.

Considering that a person’s very freedom is at stake when he or she is accused of a sexual assault, allowing an overzealous police investigator to misinterpret or misreport a given statement is a risk that most people who are accused of the crime can’t afford to take. If they are concerned that invoking the right to remain silent will somehow make them look guilty, those accused of criminal offenses in New York should consider how much more guilty they will look if they are sent to jail or prison because of their own statements to investigators.

Hire A Long Island Sexual Assault Attorney

When charged with sexual assault, you need an aggressive Long Island sexual assault defense attorney that has years of experience defending the rights of the accused. Combined we have more than 80 years experience and are ready to fight for you. Our Long Island sexual assault defense attorneys believe you are innocent until proven guilty, and we’ll fight for you every step of the way. Please call today or fill out the form on this site to schedule a free consultation with one of our Nassau County and Suffolk County criminal defense lawyers.