On April 11, 2012, the Dallas Court of Appeals reversed two sexual assault of a child convictions and a sixty-year sentence in Tran v. State. Clint Broden represented Mr. Tran on appeal and argued his case before the Court of Appeals. A few months earlier, Clint had another client’s twenty year federal money laundering conviction and sentence reversed.
In Tran vs. State, the Court ruled that it was impermissible to allow an alleged expert from the Dallas Child Advocacy Center, Ashley Lind, to testify that ninety-eight percent of children tell the truth about sexual assault allegations. In fact, the Court of Appeals questioned whether Lind accurately reported such studies in a footnote to its opinion.
“Appellant also alleges that Lind actually misrepresented the studies about false allegations. He attaches studies to his brief that facially appear to be the ones to which Lind was referring, but do not support her testimony. The State urges we cannot consider the studies because they were not presented in the trial court and because we do not know that the studies are in fact the ones on which Lind relied. Regardless, Lind’s statistics are questionable on their face. Specifically, her testimony assumes the studies were able to determine truth or falsity with certainty in 100% of the cases and she gives no indication on how the researchers made such determinations. The State contends its office -that routinely prosecutes sexual assault cases against children – it is not familiar with these studies of false allegations and is not aware whether or not its witness’s testimony is supported by the studies.”
Clint Broden and Mick Mickelsen are both board certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization in Criminal Appellate law and have won a large number of significant state and federal appeals for clients who have hired them following convictions. They handle federal appeals throughout the nation and state appeals throughout the State of Texas. You can view a list of our published appellate cases. Both Clint Broden and Mick Mickelsen have handled more appeals that most other criminal defense lawyers in career spanning 15+ years each.
