Criminal Defense Stories

Child sexual abuse , also called child molestation, is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include engaging in sexual activities with a child, indecent exposure (of the genitals, female nipples, etc.), child grooming, and child sexual exploitation, including using a child to produce child pornography. Child sexual abuse can occur in a variety of settings, including home, school, or work. The global prevalence of child sexual abuse has been estimated at 19.7% for females and 7.9% for males. Most sexual abuse offenders are acquainted with their victims, approximately 40% are relatives of the child, most often brothers, fathers, uncles, or cousins, around 60% are other acquaintances, such as friends of the family, babysitters, or neighbors, strangers are the offenders in approximately 10% of child sexual abuse cases. Most child sexual abuse is committed by men, studies on female child molesters show t...

Indecent exposure is the deliberate public exposure by a person of a portion of their body where such exposure is contrary to local standards of appropriate behavior. The term indecent exposure is a legal expression. Social and community attitudes to the exposing of various body parts and laws covering what is referred to as indecent exposure vary significantly in different countries. It ranges from outright prohibition to prohibition of exposure of certain body parts, such as the genital area, buttocks or breasts. Decency is generally judged by the standards of the local community, which are seldom codified in specifics in law. Such standards may be based on religion, morality or tradition, or justified on the basis of necessary to public order. Non-sexual exhibitionism or public nudity is sometimes considered indecent exposure. If sexual acts are performed, with or without an element of nudity, this can be considered gross indecency, which is usually a more serious criminal offence....

Sex assault conviction of Halifax man has been overturned by the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal. Catlin Stewart Cooke was found guilty at trial on charges of common assault, theft and sexual assault, all from an incident with a young woman he knew at a Dartmouth residence. Cooke pleaded guilty to breaching a court order by contacting the complainant from the Dartmouth jail the night before his trial began in an attempt to dissuade her from testifying. After crediting Cooke for his time on remand, Judge Jean Whalen sentenced him last May to two years, three months and 18 days in prison, including two years for the sexual assault conviction. Cooke maintained his innocence on the sexual assault allegation at sentencing and filed an appeal of that conviction. He claimed the judge erred in the task of considering certain evidence relating to the credibility of the complainant, improperly used prior consistent statements by the woman and certain hearsay evidence, and shifted the burden of proo...

Winthrop University police officer has been charged with 49 additional warrants for sex crimes against minors . It comes after Winthrop officials were originally notified by the State Law Enforcement Division in September of an active criminal investigation into one of its officers, 48-year-old Charles Price. Price was first arrested and charged with sex assault in the first degree and two counts of criminal sexual misconduct with a minor under 11-years-old.  Price was charged with the following additional charges:  • 9 counts of Criminal Sexual Conduct with Minor under 11 years of age firstdegree. • 13 counts of Criminal Sexual Conduct with Minor victim 11 to 14 years of age second-degree.  • 8 counts of Criminal Sexual Conduct third-degree.  • 18 counts of Incest.  • 1 count of Kidnapping. This brings the total number of charges to 52. Price is a former law enforcement officer with the Winthrop University Police Department.  The investigation was requeste...

Former head of Southern Victim Support who was jailed for 14 years for sexually abusing a pre-teen boy has filed a sex crime appeal of his conviction and sentence. David John Charteris, formerly of Dunedin, spent a decade at the helm of the regional Victim Support office from 2008. Charteris was sentenced last year after being found guilty by Judge Raoul Neave of seven charges of sexual violation by unlawful sexual connection and one of committing an indecency on a boy. His legal challenge was heard in the High Court at Christchurch. Charteris’ counsel told the court that there had been a miscarriage of justice during the trial over a cross-examination error about whether the defendant was circumcised. He said there was a delay when the boy revealed the sex offending to his family and that little leeway was given to Charteris’ memory many years later. The Crown accepted there had been an error around the circumcision issue during last year’s judge-alone trial but argued there was no i...

A man whose wife and unborn twins were killed by a drunk driver has given powerful evidence in Court and forgiven the man responsible. Bronko Hoang’s pregnant wife Katherine died after Richard Moananu’s vehicle crashed into her in September 2018. She was due to give birth within days. A 17-year-old learner driver was also killed as a result of the collision in western Sydney. Mr Hoang had to wait over 2 years until he was able to confront Moananu in Court. Mr Moananu admitted that on the day of the incident, he had been drinking alcohol for a period of over 8 hours. He began at 10.30am and continued to consume alcohol until approximately 6.45pm. His blood results after the incident indicated that he was more than 4 times over the legal limit, registering a .204 blood alcohol reading. This falls under the category of ‘high range drink driving‘. To further aggravate the offending, he was driving on an expired licence and travelling more than 45km/h over the speed limit. The agreed facts ...

Legislation aimed at stiffening penalties for repeat DUI law offenders got derailed when an amendment was tacked on, dealing with medical marijuana. The amendment would offer protections for people who have a medical marijuana card, according to Democrat Mike Carroll. This would ensure people who have medical marijuana in their system but are not impaired are not subjected to a DUI, as current law has zero tolerance for THC, the main psychoactive chemical in marijuana, Carroll said. Carroll added that there is a period of time that is significant while you have marijuana in your system, but you're not impaired. Current law without this amendment, and that's now thousands and thousands of Pennsylvanians to a DUI charge. But State Rep. Doyle Heffley took issue with the amendment. He said Heffley is missing the point, if someone is impaired while driving, they could still be charged, but marijuana can stay in someone's system for weeks. Marijuana DUI laws vary across the coun...