Chapter 2        What To Do When the Police Come To Call

Sex offenses come in two varieties.  Contact crimes and noncontact crimes.  What you do when the police come to call depends on which category of charge you are or will be accused of.  Don't believe for a second that because you're being charged with a noncontact crime you're going to get off lightly.  Prosecutors today are exceptionally adept at creating multiple charges from a single offense.  Too bad they aren't equally adept at writing a valid indictment.  More on that later. 

Contact Crimes 

Contact crimes always involve two or more people.  When the police arrive they will try to question you about the event.  You need to act like a prisoner of war at this point.  Just as a prisoner of war under the Geneva Convention is required to give his name, rank and serial number, likewise you should only give your name, age and address.  If asked any questions about who you know or the crime itself, invoke your Miranda right to have an attorney present at questioning on your own.  When asked if you know the victim the correct response is, "at this time I invoke my Miranda right to have an attorney present at questioning.  Am I under arrest?"  If they say no, immediately lock the door to your house and leave.  Remain absent for approximately eight hours after which time you may return.  When you return you may find your house or apartment has been searched by the police.  There may be crime scene tape across your door.  If crime scene tape bars your entry, leave the area immediately and spend the night with a friend.  Crime scene tape indicates the search is still in progress and they just went home for the evening.  Walking across crime scene tape can get you a charge all on its own.  The next morning you need to find out if a warrant for your arrest has been issued.  If it has, turn yourself in.  That's right-turn yourself in.  The reason for this is that your treatment by the police will be courteous if you do, compared to what you will experience if you make them come after you.  In addition the fact that you turn yourself in goes miles with the jury.  Before turning yourself in, if you have the money to afford an attorney or already have one, inform your attorney that you're turning yourself in and to be prepared to get you out on bail.  Bail is considerably less for those who turn themselves, because obviously they are not a flight risk.  The starting fee for an attorney for a sex charge is $51,000.  It is important not to pay your attorney the full amount up front.  An attorney who works hard is a hungry attorney.  Attorneys have only one food item in their diet.  It's money.  Consequently it is a very wise step to use a trust fund to pay your attorney.  This means that he can’t get the money until his job is finished, but he can look at the balance and gloat over its contents as frequently as he wants.  If at some future point he needs some cash you can authorize a release a specific amount.  It is important to get rid of anything you have of value, such as a house or other property.  You are going to trial and if you lose you won't be needing it anyway and if you win you can always get it back after you sue the state for wrongful imprisonment and malicious prosecution. 

At this time it is important to gather all your telephone numbers and addresses before you turn yourself in.  You need to put them in an address book or on a piece of paper.  Include everyone and everything you can think of.  These will become your lifeline to freedom.  It is important to remember that your cell phone will be confiscated upon arrival in jail and you won't be allowed access to the phone numbers in it past this point.  Therefore, be prepared going in.  The only phone calls you will be allowed to make are collect calls and you will not be able to make calls to a cell phone.  Some of your friends will need to set up their phones to receive collect calls or they won't be able to help you.  As you're being booked it is a wise move to request protective custody at that time.  This will put you in a segregated area assigned for sex offenders rather than be put into general population. 

Until a warrant has been issued for your arrest you should use every free moment to prepare for what is to come.  Do not think for a moment this will pass away.  Detectives today do not detect crimes, they invent them.  They will selectively examine testimony to see how it can be used to support the initial complaint.  Forget about DNA saving your ass.  That only happens on television and in the movies.  The prosecutor doesn't need it and it's so much easier for him if the crime has no DNA to compare with, because there's less evidence to refute.  If there are alibi witnesses or alibi evidence you need to use this time to gather that information because in all likelihood you'll be fighting your case from the inside of a county jail.  Gather names addresses and phone numbers of all alibi witnesses.  If you question them on your own, record it.  If there is alibi evidence you need to obtain it now rather than wait for your attorney to do it for you later because he might not do it.  I know a person who had exactly this happen to him and he got 19 years.  Don't be stupid. 

A frequent tactic by the police is to ask you if you would take a polygraph examination.  Don't!  The fact the police are doing this is a prime indicator of a lack of evidence to try you, so they are on a fishing expedition for more evidence and they are hoping that you are stupid enough to give it to them.  This technique is used to get well-meaning cooperative citizens to participate in their own arrest.  Unfortunately this is how most innocent people are brought to trial.  Don't be naive!  These people are not your friends and they aren't going to stop or go away till they get you any way they can.  Even the illegal ways.  You are not going to help yourself by being cooperative, you're only going to help them put you a way. 

Another trick they use is to come back at you weeks or months later or maybe even the when the complaint is filed with the police and ask you if you would be willing to talk to detectives about this matter.  The correct response is the one I gave you a moment ago.  This is another fishing expedition.  Even if you have not been mirandized whatever you tell them will be used to discredit any defense you mount in trial any way they can make it fit.  This is one of the tricks they used on me.  Don’t think that because you are not Mirandized they can’t use what you say against you.  They can and will.

The selective use of testimony and evidence to support the theory of the prosecutor uses the same kind of reasoning that Perceval Lowell used to support the idea there was civilized life on Mars.  He saw the canals on Mars through his telescope, he saw them change shape along with what appeared to be changing seasons.  Canals on Mars means water.  Water and canals are used on earth for crop irrigation therefore there must be civilized life on Mars.  Science always tests a hypothesis to make sure they are right and this is where the similarities between scientists and prosecutors and detectives end.  Prosecutors and detectives don't look for evidence that proves them wrong, they look for evidence that proves them right and ignore everything else.  This is what is called junk science.  Consequently if prosecutors and detectives were involved in space exploration today we would all believe there was a highly advanced agricultural civilization on Mars.  This is the kind of mentality that you'll have to fight against in court. 

Noncontact Crimes 

Noncontact crimes come in two varieties.  Those with only eye witnesses and those with evidence.  Those with only eye witnesses as evidence are, again in the vernacular: 

1.         Peeping Tom

2.         Flashing

3.         Public urination/defecation

4.         Mooning

5.         Streaking

The crimes above, generally speaking, leave no evidence behind. 

Noncontact crimes with evidence include: 

1.         Illegal pornography (non child)

2.         Child pornography 

Noncontact, no evidence crimes present a problem for prosecutors because the only evidence is the witness and because you have a constitutional right to confront your accuser in a court of law and seldom is the accuser willing to testify in court, there is very little a prosecutor can do except to try to terrorize you into a confession.  In reality the prosecutor does not want to take these cases to trial because of the expense and the fact that in most cases there is only one witness who usually doesn't want to testify.  If this is your charge and the conditions just described fit your case stick to your guns, demand a jury trial and in most cases the state will drop the charges because they don't want to waste the money on a trial of this kind.  However if your case has multiple witnesses, that creates another issue and increases the chances that one of those witnesses will come forward in a court trial. 

Noncontact crimes with evidence include two types.  The evidence exists as photographs or images and video clips on a computer.  The cases involving photographs do not have a record of viewing that the computer cases do.  Although proving that photographs were viewed doesn't seem to be an issue to the prosecutor in those cases I know about involving photos.  Naturally photos most likely have fingerprints on them which is suggestive of viewing, but not conclusive proof.  I am aware of one case where fingerprints on photos did not match the accused.  That fact didn't stop the jury from giving him 121 years.  In computers, proving that contraband files were viewed is not a problem.  The computer keeps a record of every file it works with.  The fact that none of the contraband files in my case were viewed didn't stop a jury from sending me to prison for 155 years.  I bring these points out not to highlight the futility of fighting the charge, but to illustrate how evil your enemy is and how hard you will have to work to beat him.  Hard, but not impossible. 

If there's evidence in your case you can use the time after you told the police they can't enter your residence to destroy it.  Photos burn, hard drives can be demagnetized and CD’s can be totally destroyed after a few seconds in a microwave oven. 

If during this time the police come to pick you up, don't be stupid, don't run, don't resist arrest at all.  The cops already don't like you for the charge you have, don't give them a reason to use force or you could wind up dead or in a hospital.  Your battle is with the courts now, not the police. 

Remember also there are time limits to everything.  For certain crimes there is a seven-year time limit to bring charges, for others there is no statute of limitations.  Know the time limits that affect your case.  There are also speedy trial rights that may vary among the states.  Don't allow them to prosecute you after these limits expire.

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