Man Is Spared Life-Changing Consequences for Juvenile Behavior

More than a year of out-of-court defense work produced a plea agreement with no felony conviction, no sex offender registration, and no jail or prison time.

Case Summary

The accusation

The claim was that our client had sexual contact with younger relatives while he himself was a young teenager. No one reported the conduct at the time it happened. It surfaced roughly a decade later, when the client was in his mid-twenties, by which point the case could no longer proceed in juvenile court, where any penalties would have been far more lenient.

The charge

Two counts of Rape of a Child in the First Degree and two counts of Child Molestation in the First Degree.

The possible sentence

240-318 months to life in prison, a felony conviction, and mandatory registration as a sex offender.

The defense David Marshall presented

More than a year of vigorous out-of-court advocacy aimed at the prosecutor's charging and sentencing decisions, before the case ever reached a courtroom.

The result

A plea bargain that spares the man a felony conviction, spares him registration as a sex offender, and spares him any time behind bars.

What helped win the case

We conducted sustained pressure on the prosecutor for more than a year, focusing on the facts that the conduct was reported a full decade after it happened, once the client was already in his mid-twenties, when juvenile court was no longer an option even though the conduct itself occurred while he was still a young teenager.