false accusations « CRIMINAL JURISDICTION

Criminal Law Blog by Defense Lawyer John Floyd and Mr. Billy Sinclair

October 7, 2009

ROGUE JUROR DID NOT PREVENT ACQUITTAL

Another Not Guilty: Client Falsely Accused of Indecency with Child Acquitted After Trial by Jury

By: Houston Criminal Defense Lawyer John Floyd

Every prospective juror summoned to court for jury duty in a criminal case is questioned by counsel for the State and defendant as to his/her willingness to follow the law as given by the judge at the conclusion of the trial. A prospective juror who cannot, for whatever reason, state unequivocally that he/she will follow the law is excused for cause. Thus, a juror accepted by both the defense and the State for jury service has a solemn duty bound by a sworn oath to follow the law.

Myself, and Co-counsel Christopher Carlson, recently faced the dilemma of a recalcitrant juror who decided several hours into jury deliberations that she no longer wanted to participate in the proceedings. We were trying a particularly difficult indecency with a child case based on the allegation by a thirteen year old girl who charged that our client had inappropriately touched her during a recreational outing. The teenager had been sent to stay at our client’s residence while her mother recuperated from a serious illness. After her father picked her up at the residence, and as they drove home, the teenager reportedly told her father that our client had touched her inappropriately during her weekend stay at his residence. The father conveyed this information to his wife and together they contacted the police.

This case from the very beginning was a classic “he said, she said” case. It did not matter to law enforcement that our client was a law-abiding citizen with impeccable community credentials, who was known to be a decent, caring family man.

Unfortunately, Texas law is quite clear that the testimony of a child alone in a sex case is sufficient to support a criminal conviction. 1/ In fact, the statement the 13-year-old made to law enforcement, standing alone, was sufficient legal evidence to support a criminal conviction against our client. 2/ The State need not proffer medical evidence, forensic evidence, or corroborating testimony to support the victim’s testimony. “She said” evidence is all that is needed to not only bring about a criminal indictment but a conviction as well. (more…)

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October 2, 2009

THE JUNK SCIENCE OF DOG SCENT LINEUPS

Filed under: Houston Criminal Lawyer — Tags: DNA exonerations, Dog Scent Lineups, false accusations, false forensic, junk science — johntfloyd @ 9:16 am

Popular Law Enforcement Dog Handler Discredited After False Results, Exaggerated Claims of Accuracy Exposed

By: Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John Floyd and Paralegal Billy Sinclair

We have blogged (False Forensics: An Attorney’s Worst Nightmare, May 1, 2009) in the past about the dangers of “false forensic” evidence being used in courtrooms to convict innocent people. The New York-based Innocence Project reported in 2007 that 65% of the nation’s first 200 DNA exonerations in this country involved fraudulent, unreliable or limited forensic science. Wrongful convictions based on false forensics—or what is commonly referred to as “junk science”—in the State of Texas occur with the same or at a greater frequency.

And what is “junk science?”

In an September 21, 2009 special report titled “Dog Scent Lineups: A Junk Science Injustice,” the Texas Innocence Project (TIP) provided the following illustrative definition: “Even before the television show ‘CSI’ became popular, juries and judges have tended to believe what ‘scientific experts’ say in criminal cases—especially if these ‘experts’ are police officers or prosecution witnesses. One study found that ‘about one quarter of jurors who were presented with scientific evidence believed that had such evidence been absent, they would have changed their verdicts—from guilty to not guilty.’ In the hands of a skilled prosecutor, scientific-sounding testimony from any source, no matter how fraudulent, can be played to great dramatic effect and win convictions.

“Prosecutors have taken full advantage of the gullibility of jurors and the willingness of courts to allow the use of these techniques. In case after case, prosecutors have used phony ‘experts’ with little or no training or education, false results from shoddy labs and dubious ‘theories’ with no basis in fact to get convictions. Taken together, these abusive practices have come to be known as the use of ‘junk science.’ The use of this ‘evidence’ is not limited to the courtroom: law enforcement agencies have come more and more to rely on it in making arrests and getting indictments.”

There is no greater “junk science” than “dog scent lineups” and the phoniest “expert” involved in this particular junk science is a Fort Bend County deputy sheriff named Keith Pikett. A native of New York, Pikett served six years in the Navy after he graduated from high school before taking a job at a ship yard in the early 1970s in Mobile, Alabama, according to TIP. He then graduated from the University of South Alabama with a chemistry degree and in 1984 received a master’s degree in “Sport Science” at an Alabama institution called United States Sports Academy. (more…)

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July 5, 2008

FALSE RAPE ALLEGATIONS

Filed under: Sexual Assault Crime Attorney — Tags: false accusations, False rape, rape, sex abuse, sexual assault — admin @ 3:19 pm

Houston Criminal Defense Attorney John Floyd Discusses False Child Sexual Assault Allegations and Defending the Wrongly Accused

In April 2008, after coming home late from a party, a Wunsche High School student told her father that she had been sexually assaulted at the party by a fellow student. The following day 54-year-old Ruben Cuellar-Romo went with his daughter to her school, and when the daughter pointed out a student as her attacker, Cuellar-Roma stabbed the male student in the chest, stomach and hand. Police quickly determined that the assaulted student, Joshua Chapa, had not been at the party and, therefore, could not have assaulted the girl. Cuellar-Roma was arrested and charged with aggravated assault and remains in the Harris County Jail under a $30,000 bond.

The case garnered extensive local media coverage, leading the evening television newscasts hyped by a number of pre-broadcast teases. The Houston Chronicle also gave the case prominent coverage. Then the alleged teenage victim, according Harris County Sheriff’s spokesman Lt. John Legg, started feeling guilty and recanted the false sexual assault allegation. The recantation story was buried deep in Chronicle. No charges have been filed against the victim.

“We are cognizant of the fact that she is young,” Lt. Legg was quoted in the abbreviated Chronicle article. “Unfortunately, the nature of her lie is very serious.”

To say that the “nature of her lie is very serious” is an understatement at best. False sexual assault allegations and “mistaken identification” influenced by police and victim misconduct are far more prevalent in this country’s criminal justice system than most people realize. Innocent men have spent decades of their lives in prison because of false or tainted mistaken identification in sexual assault cases. (more…)

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