ACTUAL CASE RESULTS

• Charge: Rape of a Child
  Court: Clallam County Superior Court
  Result: Our client had been convicted of these charges after a trial and sentenced to prison. His appeal was successful after being in prison for two years in prison because of mistakes by the court and his former attorney, and a family member hired us.  After our client’s testimony and the cross examination of his teen age daughter it was clear that her complaints were about issues other than sexual abuse. It took the jury just 30 minutes to find our client not guilty.

• Charge: Child Molestation
  Court: King County Superior Court
  Result: Our client was accused of inappropriately touching a 15 year old female co-worker at an adult family home.  The owner of the home and other co-workers supported our client in this case, and testified on his behalf.  Our client was found not guilty at a third trial after two mistrials.

• Charge: Rape of a Child
  Court: King County Superior Court
  Result: Our client’s nine year old stepdaughter accused him of sexually assaulting her.   These vague and inconsistent accusations were made after he had disciplined her and refused to buy her a pet frog. The jury found our client not guilty.

• Charge: Rape
  Court: King County Superior Court
  Result: Our client had been accused of sexually assaulting a co-worker after a long night of drinking. The alleged victim claimed that she was too drunk to fight back and that she did not remember the incident. Our client testified that this was consensual, and that she was an active participant. The jury believed that it was reasonable for him to infer consent from her behavior, whether she remembered it the next day or not, and found our client not guilty.

• Charge: Patronizing a Prostitute
  Court: Seattle Municipal Court, Everett Municipal Court, Seatac Muncicipal Court, King County District Court, Snohomish County District Court, Renton Municipal Court,
  Result: Through negotiations and mitigation our client’s avoided a conviction for this charge on their record.  It should be noted most of our clients had little or no criminal history.

• Charges: Rape 2 with a Deadly Weapon, Assault 2 with a Deadly Weapon, Felony Harassment with a Deadly Weapon
  Court: King County Superior Court
  Result: The alleged victim in this case had run out of her apartment carrying her 3-month-old baby and screaming, “I’ve been raped.” The trial turned on her credibility, and the argument that she had fabricated this as revenge for a break up in the relationship. Careful cross-examination helped the jury understand the problems in the relationship and with the State’s case. Our client faced life in prison for these charges.  A jury found our client not guilty of the Rape 2, Assault, and Harassment Charges, and hung 11 to 1 in favor of acquittal on the lesser charge of Rape 3. The State subsequently dismissed that charge.

• Charge: Sexual Assault Protection Order, SAPO
  Result: Our teenage client had a Sexual Assault Protection Order entered against him for allegedly engaging in unwanted sexual contact with a young woman at her parent’s home. We briefed and argued a motion to reconsider this order and convinced the court to dismiss the matter as it was improperly based on hearsay evidence the court should not have considered. 

• Charge: Sexual Assault Protection Order, SAPO
  Court: King County Superior Court
  Result: A young person claimed that our client sexually assaulted her repeatedly and without her consent while at school. Our client insisted that everything that took place was consensual.  We resolved this matter by convincing the young woman’s parents to dismiss their Sexual Assault Protection Order petition in exchange for a short anti-harassment order that did not have the same devastating consequences to our client as a finding that he had committed a sexual assault would have had.

• Charge: Rape
  Court: King County Superior Court
  Result: Our client had been accused of sexually assaulting a co-worker after a long night of drinking. The alleged victim claimed that she was too drunk to fight back and that she did not remember the incident. Our client testified that this was consensual, and that she was an active participant. The jury believed that it was reasonable for him to infer consent from her behavior, whether she remembered it the next day or not, and found our client not guilty.

• Charge: Rape of a Child
  Court: King County Superior Court
  Result: A young girl accused our client of sexually assaulting her after he spent the night at her mother’s home. This report was made to the police only after several attempts to obtain money from our client.  The jury found our client not guilty.  

• Charge: Rape of a Child
  Court: King County Superior Court
  Result: Our client was accused of molesting his then 18 year old daughter many years before that when she was in elementary school. These accusations were only made after our client had brought a custody action to get his children away from a neglectful mother. We traveled with a Prosecutor to Wyoming to interview the young lady, her mother and her siblings, and it became clear this was a vendetta.  The State dismissed the charges after those interviews. Our client got visitation and eventually full custody of his children.

• Charge: Child Molestation
  Court: Pierce County Superior Court
  Result: Our client was accused of “humping” his then 5-year-old relative with their clothes on four years prior. This report came after the boy was taught that boys touching boys was bad. His description was of a single incident that happened four years before the report when our client was 16 years old. The child said that he was half asleep, and that nothing was said by our client at the time. At trial the child denied that anything happened at all. The jury hung 8 – 4 in favor of acquittal, and the State offered a misdemeanor with no jail or probation to resolve the case.

• Charge: Indecent Liberties
  Court: King County Superior Court
  Result: Our client was accused of sexually assaulting a female after a night of drinking and flirting at a bar. The alleged victim was extremely intoxicated and believed she had been raped while passed out.   She did not remember consenting, and therefore believed she had not consented. The jury was not convinced that she was passed out and unable to give consent, with many jurors concluding she had blacked out and just didn’t remember what happened. The jury hung, and the State offered a misdemeanor with no probation to resolve the case.

• Charge: Failure to Register as a Sex Offender
  Courts: Kitsap County Superior Court, Port Orchard; King County Superior Court, Seattle
  Result: Our client was accused of failing to register for a juvenile sex offense. We were able to get the underlying requirement that he register lifted in King County Superior Court and then Kitsap County agreed to dismiss the felony Failure to Register charge.

• Charge: Rape of a Child
  Court: King County Superior Court
  Result: A neighbor boy accused our 18-year-old female client of having sexual intercourse with him when he was 7 and she was 13.  A lengthy investigation revealed that the boy had a serious mental health disorder and was very unreliable. The State dismissed these charges after being provided with our investigation.

• Charge: Child Molestation
  Court: Kitsap County Superior Court
  Result: Our client was accused of molesting his ex girlfriends son when he was staying with them several summers before the report was made.  This accusation was made when our client asserted custody rights to the child he had in common with the boy’s mother. We traveled with a Prosecutor to Idaho where the boy and his family lived and interviewed them. Based on those interviews the Prosecutors office then dismissed these charges, and our client was able to get custody of his son.

• Charge: Rape
  Court: King County Superior Court
  Result: A woman accused our client of sexually assaulting her in an alleyway at knifepoint.  The case was based on a very old DNA sample that identified our client as the perpetrator.  Our client testified that the sexual contact was consensual.  Our careful trial preparation and cross examination pointed out multiple inconsistencies in the complainant’s testimony at trial.  The jury returned a not guilty verdict after deliberating for only 45 minutes.

• Charges: Child Molestation, Rape of a Child, multiple counts
  Court: Kitsap County Superior Court
  Result: Our client was accused of sexually abusing his nieces and nephews over a seven-year period.  Several of the complainants’ stories were originally elicited using discredit recovered memory techniques.  Our client had been diagnosed with a genetic degenerative disorder that affects mental functioning.  After two years of extensive expert consultation with doctors, several competency evaluations by Western State Hospital, and litigation, the State finally agreed our client was incompetent and dismissed the charges.

• Charge: Child Molestation, Rape of a Child, Child Molestation
  Court: King County Superior Court
  Result: Our client pled guilty to molesting his two younger brothers over several years.  Our client committed these offenses when he was still a juvenile, but the molestation wasn’t brought to the attention of the authorities until the children’s parents divorced and went through a contentious custody battle. We were able to get the client the Special Sex Offender Sentencing Alternative (SSOSA), to be completed in Utah so that he could live with his mother and have family support. Otherwise, he would have spent a minimum of ten years in prison.  We assisted our client in obtaining an Interstate Transfer of his supervision through the Department of Corrections.

• Charge: Rape of a Child
  Court: King County Superior Court
  Result: Our client was an Ethiopian refugee granted asylum to live in the United States.  He was accused of molesting his grandson.  Our client had a contentious relationship with his son-in-law who drove these accusations.  The charges were dismissed.

• Charge: Civil commitment as sexually violent predator
  Court: Pierce County Superior Court,
  Result: Our client had been convicted of rape of a child and had admitted to molesting numerous other boys in the course of sex offender treatment.  We worked over a year with an expert in the area of sex offender recidivism and treatment and presented a compelling case that our client was in fact a low risk to reoffend.  The jury could not agree, and he was not committed.

• Charge: Assault 4th Degree with Sexual Motivation
  Court: Skagit County District Court
  Result: Our client was charged with assaulting another person at a public facility: this assault was claimed to have been sexually motivated.   Conviction of this charge would have been devastating to our client’s career.  After a thorough investigation and professional evaluations, this case was resolved with a dismissal of the charge.

• Charges: Child Molestation Child Molestation
  Court: Snohomish County Superior Court
  Result:  Our 25 year old client was charged with Child Molestation for behavior he admitted had happened when he was 13.  Because he was over 18 he was charged as an adult in adult court.  Because we were able to convince the Prosecutors that our client was deserving of a second chance here, through negotiations and professional evaluations, our client qualified for a diversion program that will result in dismissal of this charge when he is completed with those requirements. The victim supported this resolution. Unfortunately this kind of diversion program is not currently available in other counties, and is used only very selectively in this county.

• Charges: Child Molestation Child Molestation
  Court: Snohomish County Superior Court
  Result:  Our 25 year old client was investigated for  Child Molestation for allegedly assaulting another female family member over a number of years.   Our investigation and discussion with the Snohomish County resulted in our client being charged and pleading to misdemeanor harassment, no jail and an evaluation.

• Charges:  Petitions to Remove the Requirement of Sex Offender, Registration for Adults and Juveniles
  Court: We have brought these petitions with adult and juvenile offenders, and involving Washington state and out of state convictions, in several Superior Courts in western Washington, including King, Snohomish, Pierce, Thurston, and Kitsap counties.
  Result:  We have had the registration requirements removed in the vast majority of these cases. Making the case that a person is no longer a risk requires collecting documents and supporting information to make a convincing argument that the client is living a crime free lifestyle, and is not a risk to the community.  Many of our clients had been registering years after the time when they could have asked for this requirement to be lifted.

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE OFFENSES

• Charge: Misdemeanor Assault – Domestic Violence
  Court: Issaquah Municipal Court; Marysville Municipal Court; Tacoma Municipal Court; Everett Municipal Court; King County District Court in Seattle, Kent, Burien, Redmond, Issaquah, Bellevue and Shoreline; Kitsap County District Court; Pierce County District Court; Snohomish County District Court in Lynnwood, Monroe, Everett and Marysville; Whatcom County District Court; Seattle Municipal Court; Lynwood Municipal Court; Sumner Municipal Court; Puyallup Municipal Court; Renton Municipal Court; City of Burien Municipal Court; Kent Municipal Court; Seatac Municipal Court; Woodinville Municipal Court; Kirkland Municipal Court; Mercer Island Municipal Court; Bonney Lake Municipal Court; Buckley Municipal Court; and Black Diamond Municipal Court.

  Result: We have obtained dismissals or resolutions that avoided conviction in all of the above listed courts.

• Charge: Domestic Violence 1 Degree Assault
  Court: King County Superior Court
  Result:. Our client was accused of a brutal attack on his girlfriend just months after she had accused him of a rape. The victim invoked her right to not incriminate herself while on the witness stand and refused to answer many questions during cross-examination. The jury did not find her credible after that cross examination. Our client was found not guilty of the Assault 1 charge that could have put him in prison for many years.

• Charges: Assault in the 1 Degree DV
  Court: Pierce County Superior Court
  Result: Our client was accused of assaulting her then boyfriend and father of her child with a deadly weapon. We believed the case was fabricated by the boyfriend to cover his own assault of our client. She was the victim in the relationship, but he was the better manipulator and the police arrested her. Careful investigation, witness interviews and psychological counseling records convinced the State these charges were questionable and they were dismissed.

• Charge: Domestic Violence Second Degree Assault
  Court: King County Superior Court
  Result: Our client was accused of threatening his ex girl friend with a gun after she barged into his house uninvited, threatened his new girl friend, and intentionally sideswiped the new girl friend’s car when she was leaving. Our client was found not guilty by a jury.

• Charge: Domestic Violence Assault 4th Degree
  Court: Maysville Municipal Court
  Result: Client was accused of assaulting her son. Our client had an autistic son who had entered puberty and become increasingly combative despite support being provided the Department of Developmental Disabilities and in home care to assist the parents. After extensive investigation and education of the prosecutor’s about this family’s situation and their son’s disability, the case was dismissed.

• Charges: 2 Counts of Assault 2 DV, Unlawful Imprisonment
  Court: Jefferson County Superior Court
  Result: Our client attempted to pick up his children for visitation and was accused of assaulting family members with his vehicle while trying to leave. This case was particularly difficult as it involved extensive coordination with a family law attorney and coping with very complex family dynamics and emotions. We resolved the case though a diversion program that will result in dismissal of the charges upon satisfactory completion of the program.

• Charge: Domestic Violence Misdemeanor Assault
  Court: King County District Court, Redmond
  Result: A jury found our client not guilty after being accused of assault by a girlfriend who had gotten intoxicated and assaulted our client. When he called the police he was arrested. This is a story we see a lot.

• Charge: Domestic Violence Violation of a Court Order
  Court: King County District Court
  Result: Our client was found not guilty by a jury. His ex wife had accused him after she approached him in a parking lot and he rolled up his window to avoid her.

• Charge: Domestic Violence Felony Violation of a Court Order
  Court: King County Superior Court
  Result: Our client repeatedly called his wife, who had a no-contact order against him, from the King County Jail. The jail had 50 CD-ROMs full of recorded telephone calls. Our client had endured multiple mental health hospitalizations and had a severe drug and alcohol problem. He was facing 60 months in prison for the phone calls. We worked diligently to provide an extensive mitigation package for the prosecutors telling our client’s life story. The State agreed to recommend, and the client received, an exceptional sentence of six months of confinement instead of the 60 months in prison he was facing.

• Charge: Domestic Violence Misdemeanor Assault
  Court: King County District Court, Seattle
  Result: A jury found our client not guilty after being accused of kicking his soon to be ex wife under the table at a McDonald’s restaurant. These are facts we see often: false allegations surface before or during a divorce.

• Charge: Petition for a Protection Order and Violation of a No Contact Order
  Court: King County Superior Court and Renton Municipal Court
  Result: Our client was accused of violating a temporary no contact order sought by an ex girlfriend after he ended the relationship suddenly. After extensive investigation, it was proved that she in fact set up and orchestrated this alleged violation and the prosecutor dismissed the charges.

• Charge: Rape 3rd Degree Domestic Violence
  Court: King County Superior Court
  Result: Our client was accused of raping his ex-girlfriend. Our investigation proved how angry she was over being rejected and provided a strong motive for her to fabricate charges. She had been stalking and threatening our client in the days after she claimed she was raped, and before she made the report. We provided the State with witnesses to this behavior by the ex girlfriend, and the charges were dismissed.

• Charge: Domestic Violence Assault 4th Degree
  Court: Seattle Municipal Court
  Result: Client was accused of assaulting her ex-husband and interfering with his reporting of the incident to the police. Our presentation during negotiations about the ex-husband’s behavior before and after the incident was sufficiently compelling and inconsistent with a “domestic violence relationship” that they dismissed the case.

• Charge: Petition for an Order of Protection
  Court: King County Superior Court
  Result: An ex-girlfriend filed a no contact order against our client, who had returned from active duty as a wounded veteran. The ex-girlfriend believed he was stalking her, yet she had a long history of giving mixed messages and unpredictable behavior. The case was dismissed.