Child Injury Lawyer Blog
By David Wolf, Attorney Published by Child Injury Lawyer Network
When a child is abused, molested, or assaulted, there can be legal consequences in the form of a criminal proceeding, administrative proceeding, and / or a civil proceeding. In each legal arena or court, proof or evidence will need to be presented so substantiate the allegations. In some cases, the evidence is overwhelming and a prosecution, conviction, or judgment is strongly supported. In other cases, law enforcement, investigators, prosecutors, government officials, and / or private attorneys are sometimes challenged to find the right evidence to prove the allegations. It should be noted that each State has a set of evidentiary laws as to what evidence is admissible and what evidence is not admissible in a given legal proceeding. As such, what may appear to be a strong case on the face may not be if the evidence is limited or excluded by the Judge. Because of the intricacies of the legal proceedings including those related to evidence, it is often times helpful to have the advice, consultation, and legal representation (when appropriate) of a Child Injury Lawyer on these matters. Here are some examples of evidence that may be admitted in a legal proceeding to prove the abuse, molestation, and / or sexual assault of a child. Again, it should be noted that the existence of the evidence is a different concept than the admissibility of the evidence.
DNA Evidence. DNA of the suspect / Defendant can be collected from the victim. This can include bodily fluids, blood, or skin. These items may also be detected and collected on clothing, bedding, furniture, and other items.
Due to the high-profile cases of Jessica Lunsford, Carlie Brucia and Sarah Lunde, the Florida Legislature expanded the Jacksonville-based Child Predator CyberCrime Unit 10-fold, which included adding a wide array of detectives, prosecutors and victim advocates. The unit had five offices statewide and made hundreds of arrests. The unit became so noteworthy that its director made an appearance on “Oprah,” and was held out as a model for cracking down on sexual predators who use the Internet in their abusive acts. Although the unit appears to be one of the state’s valuable resources, it was not prevented from falling victim to Gov. Rick Scott’s vigorous budget cuts. The program’s staff was dramatically decreased from a 34-person staff to just 15 and were moved to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The proposed plan is to keep only 6 out of the 15 investigators statewide. Critics of the cutbacks are concerned that the FDLE will not have the resources to implement the labor-intensive online investigations the unit’s staff is use to conducting. For more details and criticisms read 
Texting is becoming an increadingly used tool in dating violence. Text messages are used to harass, track and intimidate current or ex- boyfriend and girlfriends. The use of text messages as a weapon in dating violence is a double-edge sword; the messages are concrete proof in court that dating violence has occurred but can also be kept private for a lot longer. Back in the day, the typical home had only one phone in the entire house. Today, is it not uncommon for each family member to have his or her own cell phone, thus, making easier for children and teenagers to hide the threatening and harassing texts. Other acts of abuse include location tracking by a partner, significant other, or boyfriend / girlfriend. These are multiple texts sent throughout the day demanding to know your whereabouts, who you are with, etc. For example, there was a case where a woman in her 20s was so closely tracked by her boyfriend that he demanded her to take photographs with her phone to prove her whereabouts, the photos were accompanied with a time and date stamp.
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In Washington, a man pleaded guilty to the rape of a 4 year old girl. How was he caught? What evidence was there against him in the criminal case for the sexual abuse and sexual molestation of this Washington child? Well, it appears that the man posted a video of the heinous crimes on the Internet and thereafter another man reported him to the authorities. Brian Beston, age 36, pleaded guilty to the cirmes of sexual exploitation, child rape, and dealing in child pornography.
In Connecticut, police arrested a convicted sex offender for having child pornography including photographs and images on a computer. Due to the large number of images located (20,000 – Twenty Thousand), it appears unlikely that the images were accidentally downloaded or mistakenly placed on the computers. Of course, the criminal defendant (Charles Heaton – age 60) in this case will be entitled to the services of a public defender or a private criminal defense attorney.
A Bleckley County (Georgia) corrections officer was arrested in June, 2009 for distributing child pornography. A Cobb County, Georgia police detective posed as a 13 year old girl in an undercover operation. The corrections officer, Jason Shane Price, sent the undercover detective sexually explicit messages and images as well as videos of child sexual abuse.