Interviewer: Are there any low level borderline incidents that happened where it’s prosecuted as a crime but it might not have been a crime?
Attorney Churak: All the time. It doesn’t take a great deal of information to start one of these cases. I’ve seen it all the time. For example, a stepdaughter doesn’t like stepdad because has rules. The stepdaughter makes an allegation to the counselor at school that stepfather touched her inappropriately.
The stepfather gets called into the police department and is subject to interrogation. The police may try to have him to take a lie detector. He could be charged with indecency with a child by contact and he’s looking at his life being ruined because this child doesn’t like his rules. I’ve seen this scenario occur time and time again.
I’ve tried a number of these cases that ended in not guilty verdicts under that same scenario. Or a young boy is always in trouble at school and he’s about to face some consequences so all of a sudden he says, “My uncle touched me, ” or something similar.
Then he goes from in trouble to being victim. These kids are smart. These kids know how to play the game. If they want to get somebody out of the house, they can get somebody out of the house very quickly.
