Investigating Child Sex Charges

This wikilog article is a draft, it was not published yet.

by: Rdenfeld • January 3, 2011 • no comments

Child sex crime cases can be some of the most fruitful to investigate. They are chock full of records to find, evidence to question and witnesses to cultivate. And oh yes, your client might actually be innocent.

Here are a few things to consider in your child sex crime cases. I welcome other suggestions.

First: records. What you get in discovery is barely the tip of the iceberg. Usually child protective services are involved, and DHS, and various foster providers and counselors. Whether the child is placed with a relative or out of home foster care or remains with a parent, there will be important records being generated even after the police finish their investigation.

What kind of records may exist?

• CPS records
• The child's DHS file
• DHS files on any family members
• The DHS Threat of Harm Report. This is an important report because it will summarize their data on your client.
• DHS planning committee meetings. These regular meetings decide what will happen with the child. They can contain new evidence.
• Citizen Review Committee reports. The Citizen Review Committee is a group that meets every six months to review children under state supervision. At the table will be the foster parents, caseworkers, attorneys, and the committee. Everyone talks about how the kid is doing, and the committee produces a written report. These can be important reports. For instance, say the DA is claiming the child is so traumatized they cannot go to school. But it turns out the citizen review committee report says they are on the honor roll. Don't you want that report? I sure would.
• CASA reports.
• Special Needs Subsidy applications. Foster parents get a higher rate when they claim a child has special needs. The application for this goes to DHS central office in Salem. These applications can show if the child has a history of mental health issues, intellectual disabilities, FASD, sexual acting out, lying, etc.
• Foster parent notes. Foster parents are trained to document, especially if a child makes statements. If a police report says a foster parent has claimed a child made statements, the foster parent should have notes to back this up.
• Supervising agency reports. Some foster care is privatized. The supervising agency should have records.
• If the child is placed in a therapeutic setting that agency will have records as well.
• Counseling records.
• Medical records, updates to the CARES report and school records.
• Social security records for kids getting SSI.

Obviously, your team has to make tactical decisions if you want to subpoena records to a court hearing. Then you run the risks of finding out they aren't helpful at all, and having the DA give you a huge thanks.

Personally I prefer to try and get records without a subpoena. For instance, if I am interviewing a foster parent I might ask them to give me their records to copy. That way it is voluntary, and not subject to open review. However, your investigator will need time to get records this way, and it doesn't always work.

Now, what to look for in the records? There are some standard things we all look for, like evidence the child was coached. But here are a few red flags I personally consider important:

• Mention of attachment issues or Reactive Attachment Disorder. Many children who suffer trauma and loss develop attachment issues. Symptoms of attachment disorders include lying and fabrication. Such children deliberately create havoc by making false accusations. If you have a foster parent accused of sex abuse this is tremendously important to know. As a foster parent I was trained to expect false allegation; all foster parents are trained to expect false allegations. If records give any indication of attachment issues I would consider it huge.
• Evidence of sexual reactivity especially prior to the allegation. Children who were sexually abused often become reactive. They seek out more sexual contact, become sexually predatory towards other children and confabulate details. In other words, maybe the child was molested…but not by your client.
• Not to be crude, but do the allegations line up with medical injuries? You just can't vaginally or anally penetrate a young child without some tearing. Nature didn't make little bodies that way.
• Who are the mandated reporters? If the first report of abuse is generated during a child therapy session I would focus heavily here. There are many wonderful child therapists out there, but some are kookoo for cocoa puffs. I find the easiest way to get the CV of counselors is to call their supervising counselor. This is not their work supervisor but the supervising therapist overseeing their license; you can get this by calling the Board of Licensed Counselors. These supervisors will often run over hot coals to give you want you need. You can also ask the board if the counselor has had any complaints or was ever disciplined. That can be a rewarding question. Another thing to do is run the counselor's name through academic search fields, to see what they have written. What was their thesis about? Library portals offer thesis portals.

Okay, we're done with reports. Lets talk about witnesses. Witnesses can be difficult in these cases because they are often children, family members or agents of the state. This is just my experience, but here are my suggestions:

• Don't be afraid to let your investigator approach child witnesses. I had one case where a fellow investigator and I interviewed a juvenile witness who admitted she had been coached to lie to the grand jury. That case was dismissed.
• Allow your investigator time to investigate the entire family. Families engaged in sexual abuse can be masterminds at deflecting interest from the guilty party. It is not uncommon for one family member to become the scapegoat for the real abuser. Even if everyone in the family is saying it is your client, and the victim is saying it is your client, it may not be your client.
• Don't assume that foster care providers won't talk. Seasoned foster parents are some of the most experienced, careful people around. If there is something dodgy about the case they might the first to see it. They could be sitting there waiting for your investigator to call.
• We all know interviewing one witness leads to six others. I had one Jessica Law case where a witness led to another witness who led to a third, none mentioned in police reports, and that witness offered information that exonerated our client. Make sure your investigator has the time to track down such leads.

Which all leads to the most important part of investigating child sex crime cases: TIME. These are not cases where you can piddle around for months and hire an investigator at the eleventh hour. It took me almost a year in a case to get a mother to a place where she trusted me to interview her 9-year-old daughter. Obviously we don't always have that kind of time. But whenever possible provide your investigator ample time to find records and develop sources and witnesses.

I realize there is more that can be said, but I will consider that enough for now and welcome any thoughts. I'd greatly appreciate having a chance to learn from others here as well.

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Rene Denfeld is a bestselling author, journalist and licensed investigator and mitigation specialist. www.renedenfeld.com