CASE RESULTS – JUVENILE SEX OFFENSES
| CRIMINAL OFFENSE | ACTUAL RESULTS - JUVENILE SEX CRIME CASES |
|---|---|
SEXUAL ASSAULT OF A CHILD (2° Felony) in Fort Bend County | CASE DISMISSED (16 year old boy allegedly forced his girlfriend to have sex with him against her will) |
| INDECENCY WITH A CHILD BY CONTACT (2° Felony) in Galveston County | CASE TO BE DISMISSED after completion of deferred prosecution (13 year old boy allegedly and inappropriately touched a girl while riding home on the school bus) |
| INDECENCY WITH A CHILD BY CONTACT (2° Felony) in Montgomery County | CASE DISMISSED (13 year old boy allegedly touched his 5 year old niece in his bedroom. Thorough investigation by Sullivan within days of being hired was enough to persuade the prosecutor to dismiss the case before the first court setting) |
| INDECENCY WITH A CHILD BY CONTACT (2° Felony) in Montgomery County | CASE DISMISSED (16 year old Client allegedly touched a female student inappropriately at his high school) |
| INDECENCY WITH A CHILD BY CONTACT (2° Felony) in Montgomery County | CASE DISMISSED (Client allegedly abused a fellow student at his high school. The case was dismissed before the third court setting.) |
| AGGRAVATED SEXUAL ASSAULT OF A CHILD (1° Felony) in Montgomery County | CASE DISMISSED (Sullivan persuaded the State to dismiss his 16 year old client’s felony sex offense. Sullivan's client has Asperger’s Syndrome and was accused of raping his 14 year old male cousin during a sleepover. Law enforcement failed to interview the accused’s parents, failed to visit the alleged crime scene and failed to investigate the complainant’s father, a registered sex offender with a lengthy history of abusing children, as a possible perpetrator. Before Sullivan could set the case on the trial docket, the State did the right thing and dismissed the case prior to the second court setting) |
| INDECENCY WITH A CHILD BY CONTACT (2° Felony) | CASE DISMISSED (Sullivan persuaded the State to dismiss his 12 year old client’s felony case upon successful completion of juvenile sex offender counseling. The boy was accused of fondling a two year old girl) |
| INDECENCY WITH A CHILD BY CONTACT (2° Felony) in Montgomery County | CASE DISMISSED (Sullivan persuaded the State to dismiss his 11 year old client’s felony cases upon completion of a boundary counseling program. Sullivan's client was accused of fondling two students against their will on the school bus) |
| AGGRAVATED SEXUAL ASSAULT OF A CHILD (1° Felony) in Harris County | CASE REDUCED TO MISDEMEANOR Indecent Exposure with 2 years of probation at home (Client allegedly abused his younger sibling) |
| AGGRAVATED SEXUAL ASSAULT OF A CHILD (1° Felony) in Jackson County | PRIVATE PLACEMENT at Pegasus School for 9-12 months of sex offender counseling and then probation at home without sex offender registration (Client abused his younger brother over a one year period. Probation Department originally recommended placement at TJJD, formerly known as TYC) |
| INDECENCY WITH A CHILD (2° Felony) in Fort Bend County | CASE REDUCED TO MISDEMEANOR Assault with no disposition (Client fondled his 12 year old younger sister when he was 14. Case was resolved after client finished sex offender counseling) |
| AGGRAVATED SEXUAL ASSAULT OF A CHILD (1° Felony) in Harris County | JURY TRIAL: NOT GUILTY (15 year old client was accused of abusing his 2½ year old niece and her 4 year old brother was an alleged eyewitness. Niece did have injuries documented in a medical examination, but a thorough defense investigation uncovered severe credibility issues with the children and their mother, the outcry witness, and other reasonable explanations for the injuries were not investigated by law enforcement) |
| AGGRAVATED SEXUAL ASSAULT OF A CHILD (1° Felony) in Brazoria County (Angleton) | CASE REDUCED TO ENTICING A CHILD (3° felony) with probation at home (13 year old client was originally accused of sexually abusing a 6 year old stepsister. With the reduction, client can never be made to register as a sex offender) |
| MOTION TO DE-REGISTER AS A SEX OFFENDER in Harris County | MOTION GRANTED (Client was ordered to register as a sex offender when he was represented by other counsel. Sullivan persuaded the court to allow his soon to be 18 year old client to de-register so that he could attend Texas A&M) |
| MOTION TO REVOKE PROBATION (INDECENCY WITH A CHILD)(2°) in Fort Bend County (Richmond) | MOTION TO REVOKE PROBATION DISMISSED (Client was re-instated on probation at home) |
| POSSESSION OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY (2° Felony) in Harris County | CASE DISMISSED IN ADULT COURT AND RE-FILED IN JUVENILE COURT (Client's case was first filed in the 176th Criminal District Court as an adult case. Sullivan persuaded the First Assistant D.A. to dismiss and re-file the case in Juvenile Court, thereby avoiding registration for a lifetime as a sex offender. Instead, Sullivan's client did not have to register at all and received probation at home. The federal government knew about the child pornography when the client was 16, but did not execute search warrant until one week after his 17th birthday. This rare event was only possible because Sullivan understands criminal and juvenile law and persuaded the DA's office to do the right thing before the child turned 18, the time when the juvenile system would have lost jurisdiction. An average criminal lawyer would have just negotiated an adult probation for the 17 year old offender and he would have been marked as a sex offender for life) |
| INDECENCY WITH A CHILD BY CONTACT (2° Felony) in Harris County | CASE DISMISSED AT JURY TRIAL SETTING (Sullivan represented a 13 year old boy accused of fondling a 12 year old girl against her will at school. Prior to the dismissal, the State offered a one year of probation at home, however the boy would have had to wait until he was 19 in order to seal his record. With the dismissal, Sullivan's client could petition to have his record sealed immediately) |
| INDECENCY WITH A CHILD (2° Felony) in Fort Bend County (Richmond) | CASE REDUCED TO MISDEMEANOR Assault with 6 months of probation at home (Client was accused of touching a younger child) |
| SEXUAL ASSAULT (3° Felony) in Harris County | CASE DISMISSED ON JURY TRIAL SETTING (Sullivan represented a 16 year old boy accused of raping a 17 year old girl at her home. After a lengthy investigation, Sullivan was able to cast doubt on the credibility of his accuser in several ways, including the fact that his client did attend football practice at the time that his accuser claimed that he had followed her home and raped her) |
| AGGRAVATED SEXUAL ASSAULT OF A CHILD (1° Felony) and INDECENCY WITH A CHILD (2° Felony) in Harris County | CASES REDUCED TO MISDEMEANOR Assault on Jury Trial setting (Sullivan represented a 16 year old boy accused of molesting his 6 year old half-sister. After a thorough investigation of the home environment, Sullivan was able to show that–if the girl had been molested–the stepfather, a convicted drug user, was the likely perpetrator) |
| INDECENCY WITH A CHILD (2° Felony) in Harris County | CASE REDUCED TO MISDEMEANOR Assault on Jury Trial setting (Sullivan represented a 14 year old boy accused of touching a 13 year old girl against her will behind the bleachers in the school gymnasium. After interviewing several eyewitnesses and taking photos of the scene, Sullivan was able to cast doubt on the girl’s version of events) |
| INDECENCY WITH A CHILD (2° Felony) in Harris County | CASE REDUCED TO MISDEMEANOR Indecent Exposure on Jury Trial setting (Sullivan represented a 14 year old boy accused of fondling a younger child) |
| AGGRAVATED SEXUAL ASSAULT OF A CHILD (1° Felony) in Harris County | CASE DISMISSED ON JURY TRIAL SETTING (Sullivans' client, a 15 year old boy, was accused of having consensual sex with a 12 year old girl in her bedroom while two teenage friends allegedly listened in the adjoining room) |
| AGGRAVATED SEXUAL ASSAULT OF A CHILD (1° Felony) in Harris County | CASE REDUCED TO MISDEMEANOR Indecent Exposure (Sullivan represented a 15 year old boy accused of abusing his 6 year old sister) |
| INDECENCY WITH A CHILD (2° Felony) in Harris County | CASE REDUCED TO MISDEMEANOR Assault prior to Jury Trial Setting (Sullivan represented a 14 year old boy accused along with two other teenage boys of fondling a 13 year old girl at school against her will) |
| INDECENCY WITH A CHILD (2° Felony) in Harris County | CASE REDUCED TO MISDEMEANOR assault on Jury Trial Setting (Sullivan represented a 15 year old boy accused of allowing a 6 year girl to fondle him in his bedroom. The mothers of the two children were in the livingroom at the time. The case was on the trial docket for almost two years. Right before his client's 18th birthday, the government offered a misdemeanor with probation for two weeks) |
| INDECENCY WITH A CHILD (2° Felony) in Harris County | CASE REDUCED TO MISDEMEANOR assault (Sullivan represented a 14 year old boy accused of fondling a 7 year old boy outside at their apartment complex) |
WARNING TO PARENTS ABOUT SMART PHONES
Attorney Sullivan regularly warns parents of the dangers of unsupervised internet access for children, especially via a smart phone (e.g., I-Phone), but can also be by other mobile devices (e.g., I-Pad), computers or gaming systems (e.g., Play Station or Xbox). The danger is that children and young adults can easily access websites that offer free high speed, hard core pornography. These websites offer videos displaying every sexual deviancy imaginable and can easily warp the minds of children and young adults.Since 1994, Sullivan has defended hundreds of juveniles and adults accused of felony sex offenses, including juveniles as young as 10. Over the last few years, about 80 percent of his juvenile cases stemmed from juveniles acting out with other children after having viewed hard core pornography on their own or a friend’s smart phone, computer or gaming station. Obviously, cell phone service, gaming system and other internet related providers need to better warn parents of the dangers of these devices. By researching online or reading over the owner’s manual, you can learn how to block access to porn on your child’s smart phones although these filters are not 100% effective.
CASE EXAMPLES
The stories of Sullivan’s juvenile clients that stemmed from exposure to online pornography are heart wrenching, yet almost completely avoidable. Case examples include: a 13 year old boy impregnating his 11 year old sister, a 10 year old boy paying a 6 year old girl who lived next door for oral sex, a 14 year old boy engaging in sex acts with his 12 year old brother over a one year period, a 15 year old boy frequently having sex with his 12 year old adopted sister over a one year period and many more.It is important for juveniles to receive professional counseling. In one memorable case, the children did not receive the counseling they needed and were later charged with serious felony sex offenses. In that case, Sullivan was hired to represent a 14 year old boy who had fondled his 7 year old stepsister. The boy had two older brothers who were 15 and 16 years of age. The 15 year old was also accused of fondling the stepsister, and the 16 year old was accused of molesting children in a neighboring county. Sullivan’s associate Nancy Botts was hired to represent the 15 year old. The 14 and 15 year old brothers received probation. The 16 year old was certified to stand trial as an adult. He was represented by a different law firm.
Seven years earlier when the older brother was 9 years old he began acting out sexually with his younger brothers, then ages 7 and 8. At that time, the older brother had received a smartphone as a Christmas present, used it to look at pornography online, shown the videos to his younger brothers and then began acting out with them in their bedroom. When they were caught in the act, the three brothers were separated and placed with different relatives. Unfortunately, none of the three children received any counseling. Fast forward seven years and the three brothers are arrested and charged separately with serious felony sex offenses.
If your child was arrested, contact Hempstead Texas Juvenile Attorney James Sullivan at (281) 546-6428 for a free confidential consultation.
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