Our Criminal Defense Case Results

INDECENCY WITH CHILD
Case No. 1326096 Joshua K.

GRAND JURY NO-BILL March 15, 2013

Joshua was on parole for Intoxicated Manslaughter and Burglary at the time of these false allegations but had long since become a strong Christian with a music ministry. He was innocent of this charge and knew that if wrongfully convicted – besides facing 2 to 10 in TDC – it would hurt his testimony. While in custody on zero bond, Joshua was in the middle of teaching a Bible class to 19 other inmates. The jailer came and said, “You’re being released.” Joshua said, “There must be some mistake?”  The jailer said, “Your case was no billed – you’re free to go!” Complainant [“victim”] was his 14-year-old niece. Her mother, Joshua’s sister, had a vendetta against him and was eager to believe her daughter’s lies to get him locked up. She even called his parole officer to speed up the hoped-for revocation. We carefully noted for the record that CPS investigators on the current case had closed a similar case filed by the same sister against Joshua as groundless and motivated by malice. What Complainant said happened: Joshua made her take a date rape pill and showed her a porn movie on his cell phone while exposing himself all the while her boyfriend was in the bed of the truck unaware this was going on and that she was too scared to call for help. What really happened: Complainant asked Joshua to pick her and her boyfriend up and take them to a friend’s house. After lots of driving and not finding anyone home to leave them in the care of, he was about out of gas. He pulled into the closest store lot which unfortunately was that of a porn movie place. This bothered him but although he had seen them necking in the back seat while driving around he didn’t think they would continue parked in public.  He left on foot leaving Complainant and her boyfriend with the truck and keys at their request. An investigation revealed someone at the video store had given them money to go to a hotel.  Joshua did not want to report his truck “stolen” under these circumstances. Several hours later they returned. During this time, Joshua made many calls to Complainant trying to locate his truck. We provided an Affidavit of cell phone records in admissible form and a detailed log to document this for the Grand Jury as it was strong evidence that Joshua and the Complainant were not together during the time of the alleged incident. Presumably [and typically in this type of case scenario] to deflect attention from her misdeeds, Complainant made her false outcry – but not until several hours later. Many statements made to police investigators and in the Offense Report were inconsistent and erroneous such as: that the incident happened on Spring Steubner – we proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Joshua was on this street during the time frame but never with Complainant; that Joshua refused to give a statement to police whereas we proved he did give a telephone interview and only refused to go in person after obtaining legal counsel not to do so without an attorney present. Valuable testimony as to Complainant’s mother’s motivation for encouraging the lies of her daughter was provided by a relative who related that Complainant’s mother admitted to her on several occasions that this case was in revenge.  Other impeachment evidence we had ready was that 2 days after the alleged incident Complainant was caught smoking marijuana with her boyfriend.  Our carefully compiled and clearly explicated evidence, Grand Jury Brief, plus witness testimony carried the day and a No Bill was handed down saving Joshua’s parole, his Christian testimony and music ministry, and his freedom.


INDECENCY WITH CHILD – 2nd Degree Felony
Case No. 1273982 – Fred T.

DISMISSED

Fred was the innocent victim of an outrageous lie concocted by his teenaged stepdaughter that he had been making improper advances to her repeatedly over time culminating in her outcry of indecent touching several months later after she unwittingly set him up. Typically for such cases, her motive was jealousy of her new baby brother and hatred of her new stepfather. Complicating the abnormal psychology of it was her own obvious but unstated attraction to her stepfather – despite her strange desire to be rid of him – and her awareness of her mother’s jealousy. Threads of truth, both stated and unstated, ran through her first statement and her second, retracting statement. We prevailed with the DA’s office to accept the retraction, an acceptance helped in part by her bizarre background: Previous to this case, she had made puerile attempts to kill the baby and stepfather and then a more serious attempt to kill herself. Medical, psychiatric, counseling and CPS records after this suicide attempt abounded to prove the jealousy motive as well as her unbalanced mental and emotional state.


INDECENCY WITH CHILD
Case No Expunged by HLF – James C.

DISMISSED WHILE SET FOR TRIAL

The teenaged daughter of our client’s girlfriend made some quite compelling allegations against our client and resolutely maintained them throughout a lengthy prosecution involving CPS. Mr. Haggard was able to exonerate our client by proving, among other legal defenses, the Complainant’s motivations to fabricate and to persist in such outrageous lies. All criminal records were later successfully expunged by Mr. Haggard after a civil court trial that was hotly contested by various government agency lawyers. James was a police cadet at the time of this false charge. At the writing of this testimonial, client is a police officer.

I was a police officer cadet with a bright future, then lightning struck. I was looking at a 2nd degree felony that might have destroyed my life and ruined my law enforcement career; but Mr. Haggard, like a knight in armor, came to my rescue. With unstoppable dedication and professionalism, he fought for me. I’ll be forever grateful.
~ James C.