Category: Sexual Assault
When a crime is judged to be motivated by factors such as race or sexual orientation, it may be dealt with by federal prosecutors as a hate crime. Under federal law the hate crime legislation may be used in offenses linked to actual or perceived race, color, religion, or national origin or perceived religion, national…
Sex offenses can cause outrage in the community and often attract heavy sentences. Recently, the Dallas Morning News reported on how a man from Fort Worth man was sentenced to 43 years in prison without parole for molesting two girls. The Tarrant County District Attorney’s office said in a news release that a jury had…
Map of U.S. Sodomy Laws Repealed or Struck Down Texas is among a dozen states that still have anti-sodomy laws on their books 10 years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled they are unconstitutional in a case involving the Lone Star State. Associated Press reported gay right groups in Louisiana are claiming police have used…
Cases in which teachers are accused of being involved in sexual relationships with students invariably make headlines. Recently a Wylie High School teacher was arrested following allegations that she had a relationship with a 17-year-old boy, the Dallas Morning News reported. Kristin Sims, 33 resigned as an English teacher last Wednesday following her arrest for…
Defense attorneys are constantly on the lookout for evidence of police and prosecutors discriminating against defendants on the grounds of race or gender. This was demonstrated at a recent trial of a man from Prosper when defense attorneys claimed Garrick White from McKinney was singled out because he is black. A jury determined that Garrick…
The case of a female Texas trooper who faces a sexual assault trial reveals the thin line law enforcement officers can tread between performing their job and breaking the law. CBS 11 News reported Dallas County Grand Jury recently indicted trooper Kelley Helleson on two counts of sexual assault and two counts of official oppression….
A Texas school bus driver is just the latest in a string of female school employees in Texas to be charged with having sexual contact with a student. Diana Almanza, a 47-year-old bus driver, has been charged with sexual assault of a child, reported KPRC.com Almanza worked for Pearland Independent School District. School officials said…
Every year more than 200,000 people report a rape to police in the United States. They are submitted to a lengthy, invasive and uncomfortable process as a rape kit is collected. What police do not inform victims is that it may take years for their evidence to be submitted to national databases, if at all….
Convictions based on the evidence of young witnesses or victims in sexual assault cases, can be unreliable in the absence of solid forensic evidence. This proved to be the case in the conviction of David Lee Wiggins, a man from Fort Worth, Texas, who spent more than two decades behind bars before he was released…
According to a recent article in the Palestine Herald-Press, a former Texas Department of Criminal Justice correctional officer has been indicted on multiple counts of sexual misconduct. David Wayne Green, 39, of Palestine, Texas, was indicted by the grand jury on January 19 th on three counts of sexual assault of a child and a…