Internet Sex Crimes | Sexual Assault | Indecency with a Child
Public Lewdness | Indecent Exposure

Internet Sex Crimes are felonies that will bring very serious consequences and penalties in Texas. If you have been accused of an Internet sex crime you need to contact a Texas criminal defense attorney as soon as possible. Call the Texas Internet Crime lawyers at Rush & Gransee to determine what you need to do to protect your rights. Early intervention by a criminal defense attorney can mean the difference between a long prison sentence and your freedom. You have rights and they need to be aggressively defended.

If you are contacted by an investigator or police officer who wants to take your statement you should ask him what the purpose of the investigation or interview is. Upon learning why the officer wants to talk to you, tell the investigator that you are undecided and need to talk to a lawyer first. Tell the officer you will call him back. Immediately contact a Texas Internet Sex Crime attorney to discuss your rights and options. Do not talk to the investigator or officer without first talking to a criminal defense attorney. A criminal defense attorney should be able to describe your options and what action should be taken to protect you or other family members.

All internet sex crimes are being actively pursued by the authorities. Their level of training varies significantly from no formal training to computer forensic experts. Attempts to ferret out offenders even include trained experts who while posing as children converse over the internet in a sexually suggestive manner. The most common internet crimes alleged are: Child Pornography, Online Solicitation of a Minor, and Criminal Solicitation of a Minor in an attempt to commit various other criminal offenses.

No one likes pedophiles, child molesters, or sexual predators. The news media in their attempts to increase ratings have exploited our fears and have sensationalized a few outrageous cases that have occurred in our country of over 250 million people. Politicians have followed suit and enacted draconian laws that often pull the accused into a web whereby the presumption of innocence is merely given lip service so that the accused can be quickly taken off the street. Various news agencies as well as law enforcement agencies have been quoted as saying that tens of thousands of child molesters prowl the internet; however, it appears that number was merely pulled out of thin air to increase the public clamor for strict justice. It is because of this back drop that an accused needs to prepare as vigorous of a defense as possible and all means of obtaining an acquittal need to be investigated.

Evidence preservation is critical. If an alleged crime involves communication over the internet it is important to preserve evidence. Often the state has obtained a warrant and has seized your computer. The state will try to prepare their case with the information on the hard drive and will very often be able to recreate files that have been deleted. Evidence preservation is important because having an illegal image on your computer is not the end of the story. The State also needs to show that you knowingly and intentionally possessed the image of child pornography. Therefore, how the image got on your computer can often be a defense issue. It is possible for images to be on an individual’s hard drive without knowledge of the owner. How is that possible? It is possible during legitimate searches that your browser is redirected briefly to a site that contains child pornography, it is possible that someone else with access to the computer entered a site containing the alleged material, and computers on networks and especially wireless networks are prone to having unintended and unwanted material on their hard drive.

Possession or promotion of child pornography

A person commits the offense of possession of child pornography if they knowingly or intentionally possess material that visually depicts a child younger than 18 years of age, at the time the image of the child was made, who is engaging in sexual conduct. Sexual conduct includes sexual contact even if simulated and also includes lewd exhibition of the genitals, anus or any portion of the female breast below the areola. Also, it is necessary that the accused knows that the material depicts a child in a manner as described in the statute. Possession of child pornography is a third degree felony
A person commits the offense of promotion of child pornography if the accused knows the material depicts a child as described above and the images were knowingly or intentionally promoted or possessed with intent to promote. If there are six or more identical visual images possessed there is a presumption the pictures or images were possessed with intent to promote child pornography. Promotion of child pornography is a second degree felony.

There are a few affirmative defenses to prosecution of possession or promotion of child pornography. Examples of affirmative defenses include: if the defendant is not more than two years older than the child, if the conduct was for a legitimate educational, medical, or legislative purpose. Other affirmative defenses exist and only through consultation with a Texas Criminal Defense Lawyer will you be able to determine if an affirmative defense is available in your case.

Defending possession and promotion of child pornography normally will involve two issues the
Accused did not knowingly or intentionally possess the child pornography or that the images are not child pornography.

Lifetime registration as a sex offender is required upon being found guilty by a jury or upon entering a plea bargain.

The federal government will occasionally prosecute individuals for possession of child pornography through its U.S. Attorney’s office. The U.S. attorney’s office will very often decide whether to prosecute someone based upon the number of images.

Online Solicitation of a Minor

Online solicitation of a minor is committed when a person who is 17 years of age or older knowingly solicits a minor to meet another person over the internet or by electronic mail or a commercial online service with the intent that the minor engage in sexual contact.

It is not a defense to prosecution that the meeting did not occur, that the actor did not intend for the meeting to occur, or that the actor was engaged in a fantasy at the time of the commission of the offense.

There are some defenses to online solicitation of a minor. A Texas Criminal Defense Lawyer after review of the facts can determine if a defense may be available.

Criminal Solicitation of a Minor

A person commits the offense of criminal solicitation of a minor if, with intent that an offense including indecency with a child, sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, or sexual performance by a child, be committed, the person by any means requests, commands, or attempts to induce a minor or another whom the person believes to be a minor to engage in specific conduct that, under the circumstances surrounding the actors conduct as the actor believes them to be, would constitute an offense or would make the minor or other believed to be a minor a party to the commission of an offense. The conduct prescribed includes indecency with a child.

Criminal Solicitation covers children under the age of 17. It is not a defense to criminal solicitation of a minor that the person solicited was actually an adult because the wording of the statute requires that the accused believed the person being solicited was less than 17. The relevant inquiry was whether the accused believed the other person was less than 17 years of age.

Criminal Solicitation of a minor is very close to criminalizing thoughts. The inquiry will often depend upon the judge or jury viewing or listening to the dialog to determine what did the defendant believe or what were his thought processes. Occasionally the undercover officer while posing as a minor will say things that a reasonable person would not believe a young child would know or say; this may be used defensively to argue that the defendant did not believe the other party to be the age as stated.

At Rush & Gransee, L.C. we will make sure that the authorities and prosecutors respect your rights as a United States citizen and defend you to the fullest extent under the law. The lawyers at Rush & Gransee, L.C. aggressively defend clients throughout Texas, including San Antonio, Sequin, New Braunfels, Kenedy, Floresville, Hondo, Junction, Cotulla, Boerne, Uvalde and Wilson County, Bexar County, Guadalupe County, Hays County, Kendal County, Kerr County, Medina County, and Uvalde County.

Call to speak to one of our Texas internet sex crime defense lawyers if you are being investigated for a internet Sex Crime in Texas or have been charged with a Internet Sex Crime in Texas. Call us at 210-223-9200 or toll free 1-888-501-9299 for an initial free consultation.