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Anne Arundel County Sex Crimes Lawyer

Sex crimes charges in Anne Arundel County should be taken very seriously. Sex crimes charges tend to come with a damaging social stigma, as well as the potential for severe penalties. If someone is charged with a sex crime in the Anne Arundel County area, they should contact an experienced sex crimes attorney in Anne Arundel who can help them to build a strong defense against these serious charges.

Ramifications of a Sex Crimes Charge

Sex crime charges, in general, are intimidating because they carry a stigma with them. Somebody being simply charged with a sex crime can have consequences even if they are ultimately acquitted.

For example, if somebody was a school teacher or had a job where they were working with young children, even the allegation of a sex crime that turned out to not be true could have a negative impact on somebody’s career just based on the stigma associated with a particular kind of charge.

Additionally, sex crimes carry significant penalties—not only the possibility of jail time, but perhaps more importantly the possibility of being on a sex offender registry for anywhere between 10 years and the rest of a person’s life, depending on the nature of the offense.

This particular kind of charge carries significant penalties that would obviously have a negative impact on a person’s reputation, livelihood, and liberty. For those reasons, sex crimes are treated seriously, especially by Anne Arundel sex crimes attorneys seeking the best interest of their clients.

Working With an Experienced Anne Arundel Sex Crimes Lawyer

Sex crimes are sensitive in their nature for a couple of different reasons. The first is that sex crimes and simply being alleged to have committed a sex crime carries a stigma, which has consequences in a person’s employment—perhaps where they live, their family, and other consequences.
But additionally, the actual process of preparing a sex crimes case for trial is something that only somebody who has experience in that arena can do.

Cross Examinations of Witnesses

As an example, when an attorney is tasked with cross examining the star witness of a sex crime case, oftentimes that star witness could be a young child who is making an allegation.
Cross examining that young child is different than cross examining an adult in some ways. There are specific rules that an Anne Arundel County sex crimes attorney will want to follow, so as to not make it appear that they are beating up on that child, but are remaining sensitive to the child’s age, due to the vulnerability that the jury might associate with that child’s mental state, based on the kinds of allegations are being made.

Another example would be when a attorney is cross examining an adult, they will want to make sure that they were well aware of something called the Rape Shield Law, which keeps the attorney from being able to ask certain questions about that particular complaining witness’s sexual history.

Appealing to Juries

There are a lot of different rules that are associated with sex crimes cases that do not apply in other kinds of cases. For that reason, they really do require somebody who has a great deal of experience in handling these kinds of cases, so that the attorney will be able to spot issues in a particular criminal investigation that support the defendant’s exoneration and get better results for the defendant.

It is also important to find ways to handle the case so that the jury is not immediately put off by defense tactics that would otherwise be perfectly fine in a regular criminal case, but just do not work as well in a sex crimes case.

The Differences Between Sex Crimes and Other Offenses

The main issue with sex crimes that separates it from many other offenses is the social stigma associated with the sex crimes. Obviously, simply being charged with a sex crime itself can be detrimental to a person not only in their employment, but also in personal relationships with family and friends.

An Anne Arundel County sex crimes lawyer can help in explaining the charges to someone charged with sex crimes, as well as to their family members and employer if necessary to try and explain if the allegations are what they appear to be, or not. An attorney can review how to aggressively bring a defense to avoid a conviction on their record or in lieu of that, if that is not possible, to avoid other collateral consequences like incarceration or registry on the sex offender registry.

The Value of Trust in Attorney-Client Relationships

The value of trust in sex crimes cases in particular is extremely high. A person is going to be talking to their attorney about very sensitive issues—their sexual history, their sexual preferences, what they might have been involved or not involved in—these kinds of conversations are routine between an attorney and a client when an attorney is representing somebody in sex crimes related cases.

Additionally, these kinds of cases can go on for a long time. Sometimes, these cases can last several months to well over a year until they come to a complete resolution. In those circumstances, the relationship of trust between an attorney and client is extremely important so that a client can be certain that their attorney is doing everything possible to best represent them adequately in the case where a criminal charge has been alleged against them.

Anne Arundel County Sex Crimes Lawyer
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