Interviewer: What are the different areas of sexual assault that are most common?
Attorney Churak: You have aggravated sexual assault, which is basically using a weapon to commit a sexual assault. In Texas, sexual assault is considered any penetration. It does not even require penile penetration. It’s a very loose definition.
Interviewer: So would groping be considered a form of sexual assault?
Attorney Churak: That would be considered a sexual assault. It would be aggravated sexual assault if they use the weapon to force them. If the child is under the age of 14, it’s considered aggravated in Texas. This is because we’ve followed Jessica’s Law and have strict statutes dealing with sex offenders in Texas.
If you sexually assault a child under the age of 14, you’re probably going to prison for a long time because you’re not eligible for probation. You will have to go to trial try to get acquitted by a jury or you’re going to prison. That’s just something new that’s come out under Texas law, if the child’s under the age 14. If a child’s over 14, it becomes a different story.
Interviewer: What happens if the victim is over 14?
Attorney Churak: The judge can’t give you probation but jury can give you probation in their verdict.
Interviewer: What are the scenarios that you see in the sexual assault realm, the most common ones?
Attorney Churak: With rape cases, most of them have been somebody accusing somebody of raping them and it was consensual or somebody who had a little too much fun at a party. The last couple ones I’ve actually had, the DNA came back but it wasn’t my client.
I had one case where there were three different DNA samples in the woman but they were all closely related because they were three brothers. She filed on one them. Two of the brothers were filed under one brother. That case didn’t really go very far.
You don’t’ see a many of those cases because of the awareness in this area. I was primarily handle cases with children than with adults with the sexual predator situation.
