Leading Criminal Attorney Edward La Rue Reveals Defense When Facing Sex Crime Allegations – Cleveland, OH
Criminal Defense Attorney and founding partner of Law Offices Edward R. La Rue in Cleveland, outlines the different sex crime levels and recommends suspects to get a cast-iron defense to fight the allegations. For more information visit https://www.edwardrlarue.com
Cleveland, OH, United States – May 29, 2021 /MM-REB/ —
Sex crime suspects need to adopt a cast-iron defense if they are ever going to fight the allegations in court and retain their freedom, advises Cleveland criminal attorney Edward La Rue.
For more information please visit https://www.edwardrlarue.com
The founding partner of the Law Offices of Edward R. La Rue revealed that sex crimes can come in many different forms and levels of seriousness – from alleged groping and incidental contact, to the more serious crimes of rape or aggravated sex assaults.
But once one hears of a potential accusation, he said, a suspect should already be seeking counsel best suited to defending them in this particular legal field.
Several defenses commonly seen in court range from the assertion of the encounter having been one of mutual consent, to the burden of proof, to the victim’s motive or intentions behind bringing such a charge.
La Rue said: “Defense lawyers will first look at the many options when presented with a sex assault claim against their client and will actively consider the best path to secure a dismissal, or a not guilty in the case if it requires trial.”
One common defense is that of consent: whether the sexual contact occurred as a result of there being mutual consent between the parties.
“Consent is one of the most challenging defenses to argue in a sex crimes case given that the facts can sometimes suggest possible ‘rough sex’ or even a physical confrontation that can appear more likely a sign of the victim’s rejection of the client’s advances”, he reflected. Not least because the prosecution has to prove consent didn’t occur and led to the alleged crime. “The ability to argue on the basis of consent where the evidence from the defendant is tangible needs to be carefully thought through.”
He advised that a suspect who has previously been convicted of sex offenses and is basing their defense on consent couldl face additional hurdles.
“Simply attacking a victim’s credibility in a courtroom is not recommended, and consent cannot be considered when it involves a child or someone that is mentally or physically incapacitated,” La Rue said.
A defense lawyer may want to consider a victim’s motivation in a crime as some kind of revenge for an unrelated matter tied to the accused in some way. “If a client is advancing a theory that the crime is being engineered because of something else, then there may well be grounds for the defense, but it will have to be fully explored, and will depend on the corroboration that can support it,” La Rue emphasized.
La Rue said that undermining a victim’s story was extremely tricky, but evidence of similar false accusations against others previously could establish a pattern, or even in rare cases, proof of the victim’s use of such accusations to manipulate a situation or gain an advantage in some way that may not be obvious at first.
A third line of defense is simply to plead innocent on the basis the crime never took place. “Pleading not guilty because you believe the allegations never existed should be weighed carefully against why a victim would be motivated to level accusations against you in the first place,” he offered. “However, just because someone makes an accusation of a sexual nature is not reason, on its face, to believe it either.”
In a similar vein, using the power of doubt in trying to undermine a victim’s story, and the prosecution’s case can be a winning approach to defending the accused. “Throwing doubt alone on a body of evidence before a court of law is one such avenue, but the defense needs to consider all the circumstances before launching such an all-or-nothing defense,” he added.
He concluded: “A defense lawyer will have all these different options to consider when defending their client, and it will be the skilled advocate that can best establish the defense and its grounds if the case is to be successfully challenged.”
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Contact Info:
Name: Edward R. La Rue
Email: Send Email
Organization: Edward R. La Rue, Attorney at Law
Address: 323 W. Lakeside Avenue, Suite 210, Cleveland, Ohio 44113
Phone: (216) 600-0663
Website: https://www.edwardrlarue.com
Source: MM-REB
Release ID: 89020180