Sexual Assault Defense Lawyer in Dallas

Dallas sexual assault lawyer

If you have been charged with sexual assault in Texas, you face serious legal consequences and damage to your reputation. An accusation of sexual assault can affect every area of your life. That’s why it’s so important to contact an experienced Dallas sexual assault defense lawyer at Broden & Mickelsen, LLP. Call us today for a free consultation about your case.

How an Experienced Texas Sex Crimes Lawyer Can Help

A sexual assault lawyer can help you face these serious charges by:

  • Explaining the criminal charges against you
  • Assessing the viability of possible defenses
  • Filing motions to dismiss the case or suppress evidence
  • Challenging the prosecution’s theory of the case
  • Advocating for a reduced sentence instead of conviction
  • Analyzing DNA evidence
  • Strategically selecting a jury
  • Admitting evidence in court that challenges the accuser’s case
  • Cross-examining witnesses
  • Appealing your case if necessary
  • Seeking post-conviction relief

Broden & Mickelsen, LLP has over 60 years of combined criminal defense experience. Our partners, Clint Broden and Mick Mickelsen, have both been certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization as specialists in criminal and appellate law. When you have our team on your side, you’ll have access to the same determination and skill that has successfully worked for hundreds of our clients before you.

How Is Sexual Assault Defined in Texas?

Texas law defines sexual assault as intentionally or knowingly committing any of the following acts:

  • Penetrating another person’s anus or sexual organ without the other person’s consent
  • Penetrating another person’s mouth with the actor’s sexual organ without the consent of the alleged victim
  • Causing a person’s sexual organ to penetrate the sexual organ, mouth, or anus of the actor or another person without that person’s consent
  • Penetrating a child’s mouth, anus, or sexual organ in any way
  • Penetrating a child’s mouth with the actor’s sexual organ
  • Causing any contact between a child’s sexual organ, mouth, or anus and those of another person
  • Causing a child’s anus to contact the mouth, anus, or sexual organ of anyone else
  • Causing a child’s mouth to contact the anus or sexual organ of anyone else

Under the Texas Penal Code, the sexual act is considered without the other person’s consent when the defendant commits the sexual act by:

  • Using physical force, violence, or coercion
  • Threatening to use physical force or violence against the other person or someone else or threatening to harm them
  • Knowing the other person is unconscious, disabled, or physically unable to resist
  • Knowing the other person is unaware the sexual offense is occurring
  • Intentionally impaired the other person without their knowledge
  • Being a public servant who coerces the other person to submit or participate
  • Being a mental health services provider or a health care services provider who gets the other person to submit or participate by exploiting their emotional dependency on them
  • Being a clergyperson or spiritual adviser who gets the other person to submit or participate by exploiting their emotional dependency on them
  • Being an employee of a facility where the alleged victim is a resident
  • Being a health care services provider who uses human reproductive material from a donor knowing that the other person has not expressly consented to the use of the material from the donor
  • Being a coach or tutor who causes the other person to submit or participate by using their power or influence to exploit the other person’s dependency on them
  • Being a caregiver hired to assist the other person with activities of daily living and causing them to submit or participate by exploiting their dependency on them

Texas defines aggravated sexual assault as committing sexual assault while also:

  • Causing serious bodily injury or attempting to kill the victim or another person
  • Placing the victim in imminent fear of death, kidnapping, or serious injury
  • Threatening to sexually assault, injure, kidnap, or kill anyone in the presence of the sexual assault victim
  • Using or exhibiting a deadly weapon
  • Acting in concert with another person who does any of the above
  • Giving the victim any substance that impairs their ability to understand what is happening or resist it

Texas also defines a sexual assault as aggravated if the victim is elderly, disabled, or under 14 years of age.

Texas defines continuous sexual abuse as the commission of two or more acts of sexual abuse over a period of 30 days or longer by an adult who is 17 years old or older against a child under 14 or a disabled person