Category: Sexual Assault
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Map of U.S. Sodomy Laws Repealed or Struck Down Texas is among a dozen states that still have anti-sodomy laws on their books 10 years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled they are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…
Those who seek sex with children may be prosecuted at a federal level in the future if a bill introduced in Congress last week becomes law. In the wake of an FBI operation that rescued over 100 children from sex trafficking, Texas Rep. Ted Poe formally announced new legislation to help end what he termed…
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…
Clint Broden began working pro bono on the case of Michael Arena in January 2006. Finally, after countless hearings and the Texas Supreme Court’s first decision in a juvenile habeas case, Michael walked out of prison at approximately 5:25 pm on June 1, 2012. He was sent to prison in October 1999. In 1999 gas…