Sexual assault charges, in most cases, are the ultimate “he said, she said” situation. In today’s “#MeToo” era, to be accused of sexual assault can be devastating. Beyond social condemnation aimed at anyone accused of sexual assault, New Jersey law prescribes potentially life-long punishment for a sexual assault conviction.
Understanding potential defense strategies against sexual assault charges is crucial for building a strong response to sexual assault allegations. The New Jersey criminal defense attorneys of the Law Offices of Jonathan F. Marshall can provide the aggressive legal representation and effective defense strategies you need if you are facing criminal charges.
If you have been arrested or indicted for sexual assault in New Jersey, contact The Law Offices of Jonathan F. Marshall as soon as possible. Our law firm has multiple New Jersey locations. Our criminal defense lawyers have developed professional working relationships with prosecutors because of the time we have spent in New Jersey courts. Local prosecutors will consider our proposals for reduced charges or the dismissal of charges when warranted.
What Are The Top Defense Strategies Against Sexual Assault Charges?
Strategy 1: Challenging the Evidence
Anyone charged with a sex crime has the constitutional right to a robust legal defense. Without a guilty plea, prosecutors must prove their charges beyond a reasonable doubt.
Your criminal defense lawyer will be allowed to examine and question the evidence against you. An experienced lawyer can use several effective defense strategies to raise reasonable doubt about the charges by questioning:
- Lack of Consent vs. Misinterpretation. In some sexual assault cases, consent may be disputed based on miscommunication or differing perspectives. Consent is demonstrated when the evidence is sufficient to establish that a reasonable person would have believed that the alleged victim had freely agreed to the sexual act.
- The Credibility Gauntlet. There may be reasons to question the accuser’s credibility, including inconsistencies in statements, potential ulterior motives, or a history of false claims. This strategy requires a thorough investigation. New Jersey’s rape shield law generally prohibits introducing evidence of an accuser’s previous sexual conduct during a trial for sexual assault, criminal sexual contact, and other sex crimes.
- Forensic Evidence and Its Limits. The potential remains for DNA evidence or medical evidence to be misinterpreted or inconclusive. We would hire our own expert to examine forensic evidence against you and to testify to any discrepancies found.
Strategy 2: The Power of an Alternate Narrative
The most basic defense in any criminal case is a claim of innocence. We may be able to establish:
- Mistaken Identity. When the victim and suspect don’t know each other or there is limited physical evidence, it’s possible for a suspect to be wrongly identified. Witnesses or other evidence, such as phone records or surveillance footage, may place you at a different location at the time of the alleged sexual activity. We could question a faulty suspect lineup if one was held, the reliability of witness accounts, or even bias among the victim or witnesses.
- Alternative Explanations for Evidence. Things are not always as they seem. There may be alternative explanations for the evidence the prosecution presents. For example, an accuser’s alleged bodily harm may be from consensual rough play or other circumstances.
- A Counter-Narrative. We may be able to use witness statements, text messages, or other documentary evidence to construct a narrative that counters or reframes the prosecutor’s narrative by telling the story from another perspective and/or pointing out misconceptions or half-truths in the prosecution’s evidence.
Strategy 3: Focusing on the Accuser’s State of Mind
Sometimes our criminal defense lawyers can raise doubt about the veracity of the alleged victim’s accusations by questioning their:
- Mental Health and Credibility. The accuser’s mental health history and/or previous false accusations of sexual assault or other alleged infractions committed against them may be used to damage the credibility of their current allegations.
- Substance Impairment. If the accuser was known to have been consuming alcohol or drugs in the hours prior to the alleged assault, their story is immediately questionable due to their intoxication.
Strategy 4: Law Enforcement Procedural Errors
An experienced defense lawyer will also look at the circumstances of your arrest:
- Challenging the Interrogation. We would seek to have charges dismissed if we found evidence of your rights being violated when police arrested you or during police questioning, including by failure to provide Miranda warnings or access to an attorney.
- Search and Seizure Issues. When warranted, we would immediately challenge the legality of an improper search and seek to have any evidence obtained from the improper search excluded from trial.
Strategy 5: Pre-Trial Motions and Negotiations
Having a defense attorney who is known by local prosecutors and judges will help when it comes time to determine what kind of case the prosecutor has against you and whether it will go to trial:
- Motions to Suppress Evidence. A motion to suppress evidence asks the judge to disallow the use of certain evidence against you at trial because it was illegally obtained. Excluding evidence can significantly weaken the prosecution’s case.
- Leveraging the Power of Negotiations. When there are weaknesses in the prosecution’s case, we may be able to persuade them to dismiss the charges. In other cases, we can negotiate for our client to plead guilty to reduced charges that result in lighter penalties. Pleading guilty is the client’s decision, but it may be advantageous, for example, if it allows our client to avoid having to register as a sex offender.
What is 1st-4th Degree Sexual Assault in New Jersey?
Criminal charges of sexual assault in New Jersey require “an act of sexual penetration with another person” under specified circumstances. Sexual penetration means vaginal intercourse, cunnilingus, fellatio, or anal intercourse between persons or insertion of the hand, finger, or object into the anus or vagina either by the actor or upon the actor’s instruction.
Aggravated sexual assault is a first-degree offense in New Jersey punishable by 10 to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $200,000. An individual faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a victim who is younger than 13.
Aggravated sexual assault may be charged if any of the following applies to an incident of sexual assault:
- The victim is younger than 13 years old.
- The victim is at least 13 years old but younger than 16 years old and:
- The perpetrator is related to the victim by blood or by marriage, such as a “step” or “in-law”
- The perpetrator has supervisory power of any nature or in any capacity over the victim.
- The perpetrator is a resource family parent, a guardian, who stands in the place of a parent within the household.
- The act is committed during the commission or attempted commission of a robbery, kidnapping, homicide, aggravated assault on someone else, burglary, arson, or criminal escape.
- The perpetrator has a weapon or another object that the victim will reasonably believe to be a weapon and makes threats by word or gesture to use the weapon to cause serious bodily injury.
- The perpetrator is aided or abetted by other persons and uses physical force or coercion.
- The perpetrator uses physical force or coercion and severely injures the victim.
- The perpetrator knew or should have known the victim was physically helpless or incapacitated, intellectually or mentally incapacitated, or had a mental illness or disability that made them incapable of understanding the nature of the act, including being incapable of providing consent.
Sexual assault is a second-degree offense under New Jersey law, punishable by 5 to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $150,000. Sexual assault may be charged as a second-degree offense if any of the following apply:
- The perpetrator uses physical force or coercion, but the victim is not severely injured.
- The perpetrator has legal, professional, or occupational status that gives them supervisory or disciplinary power over a victim who is on probation or parole or is detained in a hospital, prison, or other institution.
- The victim is 16 or 17 years old and:
- The perpetrator is related to the victim by blood or by marriage.
- The perpetrator has supervisory or disciplinary power of any capacity over the victim.
- The perpetrator is a resource family parent, a guardian, or stands in the place of a parent within the household.
- The victim is at least 13 years old but not yet 16, and the perpetrator is at least four years older than the victim.
Sexual assault may be charged as a third-degree offense punishable by 3 to 5 years in prison and a fine of up to $15,000 if any of the following apply:
- The victim is at least 13 years old but not yet 16 years old and
- The parties are related
- The perpetrator is a supervisor of or is responsible for disciplining the victim according to the law
- The perpetrator is a parent or guardian.
- The assault occurs in the process of committing a robbery, homicide, burglary, or similar offense.
- The offender has possession of a weapon or implies that they possess a weapon.
- The offender is assisted by another person and involves force or coercion.
- The use of force causes the victim to be injured.
- The victim is someone that the perpetrator knows is helpless, mentally impaired, or unable to provide consent.
Criminal sexual contact is a fourth-degree offense punishable by up to 18 months in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. Criminal sexual contact is defined as “an intentional touching, either directly or through clothing, of the victim’s or actor’s intimate parts for the purpose of degrading or humiliating the victim or sexually arousing or sexually gratifying the actor.” Intimate parts include a person’s sexual organs, genital area, anal area, inner thigh, groin, buttock or breast.
A person may be charged with criminal sexual contact if they have sexual contact with another person or have sexual contact with themself in the presence of another person and one of the following circumstances is present:
- Force or coercion: The actor used force or coercion, and the victim did not sustain a severe personal injury.
- Victim under supervision: The victim is on probation or parole or is detained in a hospital, prison, or other institution, and the actor has supervisory or disciplinary power over the victim.
- Victims between 16 and 18 years old. The victim is at least 16 but less than 18, and the actor is related to the victim by blood, has supervisory or disciplinary power over the victim, or is a caregiver or guardian of the victim.
- Victims between 13 and 16 years old. The victim is at least 13 but less than 16 years old, and the actor is at least four years older than the victim.
Aggravated criminal sexual contact is a third-degree offense that may be charged if the conditions outlined above for aggravated sexual assault are present in a case of criminal sexual contact.
In addition, Megan’s Law requires people convicted of sexual crimes in New Jersey to register as sex offenders for at least 15 years following sentencing.
Contact Our New Jersey Sexual Assault Defense Lawyers Today
A sexual assault defense requires a multi-pronged and highly tailored approach. If you have been arrested or face indictment for sexual assault in New Jersey, contact the Law Offices of Jonathan F. Marshall as soon as possible. Our New Jersey sex crimes defense attorneys have the knowledge, experience, and reputation in New Jersey’s legal community needed to aggressively defend your rights in cases involving sexual assault.
Don’t face sexual assault charges in New Jersey without the solid legal defense a knowledgeable defense lawyer can provide. Contact Marshall Criminal Defense now at any of our locations throughout New Jersey for a free initial consultation about the legal options for protecting you.
