Our trial attorneys have a long history of defending people arrested and charged with sex crimes in the State of Delaware. If you have been arrested and charged with a sex offense, please contact us for a free consultation.
WARNING: If you have been contacted by the police or by an investigator from a state agency following an allegation of wrongdoing, please contact us immediately. You should contact us before you turn yourself in and before any questioning.
WARNING: If the police, school administrators, or other officials have contacted you to request permission to interview your minor child about allegations he or she engaged in unlawful touching or other sexual activity, you should not give permission. Instead, you should contact us immediately.
We know some rape allegations are true, and we do not wish to devalue the stories of people who have actually been through real abuse. But we also know that there are plenty of cases involving 100% false claims of rape and false sex crimes allegations, and that’s why we believe that no citizen should turn themselves in for questioning by police or allow their minor child to be interviewed by police without first receiving the advice of counsel.
Every year, completely innocent people are arrested and imprisoned on false charges involving rape, unlawful sexual contact, and other crimes. What most people don’t realize is that “he said, she said” maybe enough to send you to prison for the rest of your life.
True story: Attorney Ben Schwartz represented a gentleman who was arrested and charged with Rape in the First Degree. His bail was more than one hundred thousand dollars. His family could not afford to post a bond to get him out of jail. So he sat in jail waiting for his case to come up for trial so he could prove his innocence. He waited all summer. He waited all through the fall. He waited into the winter and missed Christmas with his family. His family hired Ben to defend him. Ben hired a private investigator named Gary Marshall to interview the woman who accused the gentleman of rape. The private investigator tape-recorded his conversation with the woman. The woman admitted she made up the rape accusation! Ben got the rape charge dropped. Can you imagine being held in jail for months and months, not knowing whether you would ever get to go home, on a trumped-up, false rape accusation? That’s all they need to arrest you and charge you with a crime – one person saying you raped them.*
“Sex Crimes” don’t merely include Rape. A list of criminal offenses that may be considered “sex crimes” includes the following:
- Rape
- Statutory Rape
- Unlawful Sexual Contact or “USC”
- Indecent Exposure
- Possession of Child Pornography
- Criminal Sexual Harassment and
- Other crimes involving sexual acts.
In Delaware, you should be aware that there is a Sex Offender Registry. The searchable Registry is available on the Internet at https://sexoffender.dsp.delaware.gov. Anyone convicted of a sex crime must register as a sex offender. Depending on the severity of the offense, the registration may last 15 years, 25 years, or life. The federal government also maintains a National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW) at www.nsopw.gov that updates based upon entries in the state registries.
* Disclaimer: Sex-related offenses are unique crimes, each with their own facts and circumstances. Effective defense in a rape case or other sex crimes case will be tailored closely to the facts of that particular matter. Further, success in one case is not a valid indicator or predictor of similar results in other cases. Every case is different.
