Transcription
Were with Adam Feldman? Adam is a criminal defense attorney in Phoenix, Arizona. He's agreed to answer some online questions that were posted. These are specifically related to child molestation. With that said, let's go ahead and get in with the questions, Adam.
First questions was posted was my husband was just arrested for several sex-related charges. What do I do?
- You do exactly what you're doing. Whenever a loved one is arrested, especially when you're talking about crimes as serious as these, first thing you need to do if you have the ability is to reach out to an attorney. And often, whether you have financial ability or not, still, hitting the web, and trying to learn as much information as you can, is probably the most important thing so at least you can prepare yourself and him for what's coming up.
Okay, next question was is I went to a bail bondsman, but he told me that there was no bond. Why is this? Can we get a bond on a case where the charges are child molestation and sexual conduct with a minor?
All right, so, it's actually pretty common. The Arizona Constitution provides that there are certain charges where, if you're charged with it, you don't get a bond. A lot of the sex crimes are in there, so sexual assault, which is commonly referred to as rape, molestation of a child, sexual conduct with a minor. That group of offenses, when you receive your initial appearance, or when you're arrested, and then taken to the jail, and that first hearing in front of a judge where they give you a bond or decide not to, with these types of cases, you are not going to get a bond.
There is a way that we can attempt to get a bond, but it goes like this. There has not been any determination as to whether or not he's done this. All that's happened is the judge has read a paragraph on a piece of paper, learned a little bit about the charges and said, all right, you're not bondable, because the Arizona Constitution tells me I have to hold you non-bondable. But, the law requires due process for anybody who's accused of this, so in order to be held non-bondable, there has to be this hearing. Now, you can waive your hearing and choose not to have it, but that would just be silly, so what we always do in these cases is we file a motion. It's basically a motion to modify his release conditions from non-bondable to we want him to get a bond, but it's slightly different in the sense that it's calls a Simpson hearing, and with a Simpson hearing, what we're doing is we're trying to say, look, you don't have the evidence or the proof required to hold this person non-bondable.
Now, what I always tell my clients is that these are very difficult burdens to overcome, because, the way that it starts is the burden is proof evident, presumption great in favor of the state, so, basically what happens is the state will bring forward one witness out of the whole case and usually, it's the lead detective, and that detective will talk about everything that's going on in the case. He can hearsay in testimony so victims don't have to show up, and he can basically speak for every person who is involved with this case. At the completion of that, the judge is basically going to decide is the proof evident upon what has been presented to me, and that's with the understanding that the presumption is great in favor of maintaining a non-bondable status.
Every once in a while, however, the state can't do it. They hardly have enough information to charge the guy, and so, when they actually present this in front of a judge, the judge says, well look, you certainly have some suspicious facts out there, but you don't have enough to hold this guy non-bondable, and so that person gets a bond and is released. So, the answer is yes. We can get a bond. It's not easy, but it's what we do.
Okay, fair enough, the next question we had is, I know who the girl is, but she is no longer pressing charges. Will this case be dismissed?
The short and simple answer is no. What you're talking about is a really common occurrence. A lot of times, a daughter, a friend, or somebody who knows and has good feelings towards this person has come forward and told an adult, hey, these things are going on, and they didn't think that somebody would get in trouble, they just wanted to tell a parent or a teacher, or somebody. Next thing that girl knows, and typically speaking, it is a young girl who does that disclosure. Next thing that person knows is, all of a sudden, their uncle, father, step-father, whoever it is, teacher, is now sitting in jail looking at all this time, and they're saying to themselves, this isn't what I wanted. I just wanted to let somebody know, and now he's getting in all this trouble, so I wanna dismiss the case, and I don't wanna press charges.
But, at that point, once he's been arrested, and once the investigation has started, the quote unquote victim, no longer has any ability to control this case. The only person that's controlling this case is the prosecutor, and the prosecutor, at this point, will not dismiss the case, regardless of what the victim's desire is, so, just because she's no longer pressing charges, is unfortunately, insignificant, and the state will not dismiss just because the alleged victim does not wanna press charges anymore.
Okay, excellent, and the final question we had, and this one's a little broad, so perhaps by reading you this little bit, but is my husband looking at a lot of time? Will my husband have to register as a sex offender?
And, right, so that requires me to know a whole lot more specifics, but what I can tell you is typically speaking, these charges carry with them huge, huge sentences, 10, 20, 30 years, I mean, up to hundreds of years. Often times, we see clients who have been charged with 10 counts of child molestation, or sexual conduct with a minor. Some of those counts are things that happened on the same day. Some of these are happen, or counts or charges that happen over years. Each one of those counts, I mean, you can be looking at as much as 27 years, 35 years, it just depends on how the prosecutor's charged it, so the short answer is these charges carry with them a substantial amount of time. Now, that's not me telling you that you, the accused, that if this person is convicted at trial--
Adam if you could, Adam, if you could, you broke up there for just a little bit. Could you go back? I lost some of that response.
Sure, sure. So, going back, the idea is that yes, they are technically looking at a substantial amount of time in prison if they are convicted. Now, that's not me telling you, all of sudden, he's going to do 35 years or a hundred years, it's just a technical assessment of the case with these types of charges where they are looking at hundreds of years in prison, or next thing you know, they're getting probation, or maybe only two and a half years in prison versus 86 years in prison, so the specifics always matter, and within the true facts, I'll be able to figure out how I can defend the case, and what we can do, as far as reducing, if not eliminating the potential risk of prison.
Excellent, okay. Well, if you have any additional questions for Adam, you can post them in the comments section below. He's agreed to get back to you with answers, or obviously, if it's a more pressing issue, you can just call him directly. With that said, thanks for your time, Adam.
Thanks Ryan, and a lot of these questions within this field, within the sex crimes field, are very specific, so feel free to call me. That's my cell phone number listed at the screen below, 602-540-7887, and I'm more than happy to answer any of your questions. The consultation is free, so I look forward to speaking with you, and thanks for reaching out.
Thanks Adam.