If you have been charged with any sexual crime, contact my office right away.

How do you fight a sexual assault case?

You have to understand the system. In most criminal cases, the police gather the evidence. They look at it along with prosecutors to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to go forward. Sexual assault cases are completely different. There is rarely any physical evidence to analyze, and if a person states they have been sexually assaulted, the police just document and gather the evidence.

If the victim is a child, they are brought to Safe Harbor for an interview by a trained examiner, paid for and working for the prosecutor’s team. Once the child’s statement is documented, the child moves into therapy and counseling. No one asks whether the outcry is credible.

We hire experts that know this process and can explain how a forensic psychologist should be used to evaluate the evidence. Do not trust the people in the system.

  • Everyone assumes the child has no reason to fabricate.
  • Everyone assumes that the parents or others have not influenced the child.
  • Everyone interprets every fact to indicate sexual abuse.
  • Everyone interprets your behavior as evidence that you are guilty:
    • If you say you’re innocent, look convincing, and pass a polygraph, you are a manipulator.
    • If you show emotions over the charges, it is evidence of your guilt.
    • If you do not have an emotional reaction, you are a cold, calculated perpetrator.

You cannot talk your way out of this. They already believe you did it. Don’t waste your breath. You need to hire an experienced attorney immediately. We have handled numerous cases, including jury trials, and won.

An attorney needs to have the following qualifications:

  • Experience. Attorney John E. Choate, Jr. has handled, negotiated, and been involved with jury trials of this nature since 1997.
  • Resources. Unlike other cases, these must be investigated by obtaining CPS records, Safe Harbor records, psychological records, and background records of the alleged victim. It requires a thorough attorney with the resources to access the information you need unearthed.
  • Legal Strategy. The Prosecutor and Judges will resist any attack on the alleged victim and their support system but will freely allow an all out attack on your character. Your attorney has to know the law in and out and be ready to fight that legal battle on every point.

Give my office a call and make sure you have an aggressive, experienced attorney fighting for you.

Since 1995, Attorney John E. Choate, Jr. has handled the following case types:

Sexual Assault

A person can be convicted of sexual assault if he or she intentionally or knowingly:

  • Causes the penetration of the anus or sexual organ of a person by any means without that person’s consent.
  • Causes the penetration of the mouth of a of a person by the sexual organ of the actor without that person’s consent.
  • Causes the sexual organ of another person, without that person’s consent, to contact or penetrate the mouth, anus, or sexual organ of another person.

Sexual Assault of a Child

A person can be convicted of sexual assault of a child in Texas if he or she intentionally or knowingly:

  • Causes the penetration of the anus or sexual organ of a child by any means.
  • Causes the penetration of the mouth of a child by the sexual organ of the actor.
  • Causes the sexual organ of a child to contact or penetrate the mouth, anus, or sexual organ of another person, including the actor.
  • Causes the anus of a child to contact the mouth, anus, or sexual organ of another person, including the actor.
  • Causes the mouth of a child to contact the anus or sexual organ of another person, including the actor.

Indecency with a Child by Contact

A person can be convicted of indecency with a child by contact in Texas if he or she intentionally or knowingly:

  • Touches a child’s anus, breast, or any part of the genitals of a child, including touching through clothing.
  • Permits or encourages any touching of any body part of a child with the anus, breast, or any part of the genitals of a person, including touching through clothing.

Indecency with a Child by Exposure

A person can be convicted of indecency with a child by exposure if he or she intentionally or knowingly:

  • Exposes their anus or any part of their genitals, knowing the child is present.
  • Causes the child to expose the child’s anus or any part of the child’s genitals.

Online Solicitation of a Minor

A person who is 17 years of age or older commits an offense if, with the intent to arouse or gratify the sexual desire of any person, the person, over the Internet, by electronic mail or text message or other electronic message service or system, or through a commercial online service, intentionally:

  • communicates in a sexually explicit manner with a minor; or
  • distributes sexually explicit material to a minor.

A person commits an offense if the person, over the Internet, by electronic mail or text message or other electronic message service or system, or through a commercial online service, knowingly solicits a minor to meet another person, including the actor, with the intent that the minor will engage in sexual contact, sexual intercourse, or deviant sexual intercourse with the actor or another person.

Continuous Sexual Abuse of a Young Child or Children

A person can be convicted of continuous sexual abuse of a young child or children if:

  1. During a period that is 30 or more days in duration, the person commits two or more acts of sexual abuse against one or more victims, and
  2. At the time of the commission of each of the acts of sexual abuse, the actor is 17 years of age or older and the victim is a child younger that 14 years of age.