Alleged Sexual Misconduct in Philadelphia
Over a year ago, I was hired to represent a student at a local suburban university. He had been called down by a county detective regarding allegations concerning sex with a 15-year-old girl. My client denied having any sexual contact with this young woman. He indicated that he had told the detective that he had met her through another 17-year-old female with whom he had nothing more than a friendly relationship.
I spoke to the detective at length and he indicated that the allegation concerned sexual contact, including fellatio, on two separate occasions — both times in my client's car. There was a four year difference in age between the two. If convicted of Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse (IDSI), my client faced a mandatory minimum sentence in Pennsylvania. I surrendered my client and prepared for the preliminary hearing.
I brought the 17-year-old female friend of my client and his accuser to my office. She advised me that the accuser was boy crazy and had a big crush on my client. The accuser indicated to her friend that my client told her she was "too young," which really made her angry. The friend told me that the accuser was now sorry she made the allegations, but the police threatened to charge her if she were to withdraw the charges. She gave me a lot more current information concerning the accuser and when I questioned her about how she knew this info, she told me that she was on Facebook and that they chat with each other every night.
I had the preliminary hearing continued on the basis that I needed more time to prepare for cross examining the accuser. One of the younger lawyers in my office got on Facebook and made friends with her within a matter of days. Every morning, copies of the accuser's Facebook wall were on my desk. She was out of control. She started referencing an older guy and how she was in love with him. Her daily prose concerning this older guy was intense and incessant. She never revealed his name and was very cautious about their relationship because it was a secret one. She mentioned that one night (her 16th birthday) when the secret lover was working nights, he pulled up in the driveway and came into her house just to kiss her.
As the preliminary hearing approached, she expressed some concern online about testifying, but that her new love told her he was going to make sure "everything worked out."
Prior to the preliminary hearing, I took 53 days of Facebook messages to the District Attorney's office and expressed my suspicion to the District Attorney himself that the new older love interest was someone from law enforcement. The District Attorney continued the preliminary hearing.
Unbeknownst to me, the DA's office conducted surveillance on the assigned detective, a 27-year-old married man. After gathering substantial evidence, he was confronted by the District Attorney's office who served a search warrant on his house for his computer and related items. He confessed to having inappropriate contact with the young lady and several photos of her in various states of undress were found on his computer.
The detective was fired, charged, and later pled guilty to possession of child pornography and corruption of the morals of a minor. He was sentenced to house arrest and a long period of probation. The charges against my client were dropped.
The point? New technologies are wonderful. The Internet is a dangerous place.
When you need legal help fighting a criminal charge, call 215-561-9188 to reach the law office of Patrick Artur in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In case of emergency, you can reach Patrick Artur personally by calling his cell phone at 215-915-6666.
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