How do you judge what is or isn’t appropriate behavior? When people are accused of lewd or lascivious molestation they are often confused as to how or why this is happening to them. Sometimes what they said or did is misconstrued to make them look guilty.
Over in Marion County, sheriff’s deputies arrested a 32 year old man from Ocala on charges that he molested a 15-year-old girl over a three month period. Deputies arrested the man and charged him with lewd and lascivious molestation.
According to the report, detectives learned that the man interacted with the teen inappropriately on at least four different occasions. Detectives are now checking on if he has had any contact with the other children in the area.
His defense attorney will need to explain to him that lewd or lascivious molestation charges involve encouraging or enticing or forcing a child younger than the age of sixteen to touch another person in a lewd or lascivious manner.
As squeamish as this may make you feel and as bad as it sounds, it is crucial for the defense to find out if the young girl is making this all up or perhaps is merely confused about what the man did to her.
Was she the first one to contact him? Did she continue to pursue him? Does she have a history of getting involved in these sorts of situations? Does she have a history of mental illness?
When your client is looking at jail time, you must investigate all avenues.
