Families of SOs Community Group
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We're still in the early days of my son's case, but now we've finally gotten (partial) transcripts and the lawyers are starting to be more encouraging. For the most part, the conversations are as my son recalled—yes, there are lots of sexual statements, but there are many places where he voiced doubt about the truthfulness of the person on the other end, flat out saying that he can tell their picture is a fake, that the story they're telling about friends, family, and other subjects is inconsistent, and several times saying "you could be anybody." He also insists that he doesn't "want to do anything wrong" and says "I may talk a big game, but I just want to talk."
You can see the transition in the conversation, where at first they are both more playful, then the person on the other end shows that they know things about my son and he becomes more and more convinced that it's someone "out to get him" (he thought it was someone trying to blackmail him by embarrasing him, because he honestly didn't think the police could go this far to pull someone in). He finally agrees to meet out of fear rather than sexual interest.
In any case, the lawyers now believe we're going to face a deal: agree to take probation and signing the list, or take it all the way to trail where the conviction rate in these cases is greater than 90% and the minimum sentence is 5 years, no chance of parole.
It's easy to see why 88% of such cases in MO don't reach trial. According to the lawyers, the only ones that usually do are where the state is so certain of their case they offer no plea. With a 5-30 year club in hand, the state gets almost everyone to plead.
But... my son is a paramedic. He worked for years to get there, and he's still out there saving people right now (made several ambulance runs yesterday, including saving a woman who took too much blood pressure medicine). If he signs anything, even a misdemeanor, he'll never work again.
We have a tough choice ahead. We have a good legal team. I think the transcripts are compelling. But still, there's some graphic sexual language that definitely won't sound good in court and the lawyers keep repeating that these are very, very tough cases to win.
I'm going to surprised if someone doesn't die of pure stress before this is over.
You can see the transition in the conversation, where at first they are both more playful, then the person on the other end shows that they know things about my son and he becomes more and more convinced that it's someone "out to get him" (he thought it was someone trying to blackmail him by embarrasing him, because he honestly didn't think the police could go this far to pull someone in). He finally agrees to meet out of fear rather than sexual interest.
In any case, the lawyers now believe we're going to face a deal: agree to take probation and signing the list, or take it all the way to trail where the conviction rate in these cases is greater than 90% and the minimum sentence is 5 years, no chance of parole.
It's easy to see why 88% of such cases in MO don't reach trial. According to the lawyers, the only ones that usually do are where the state is so certain of their case they offer no plea. With a 5-30 year club in hand, the state gets almost everyone to plead.
But... my son is a paramedic. He worked for years to get there, and he's still out there saving people right now (made several ambulance runs yesterday, including saving a woman who took too much blood pressure medicine). If he signs anything, even a misdemeanor, he'll never work again.
We have a tough choice ahead. We have a good legal team. I think the transcripts are compelling. But still, there's some graphic sexual language that definitely won't sound good in court and the lawyers keep repeating that these are very, very tough cases to win.
I'm going to surprised if someone doesn't die of pure stress before this is over.
But take everything in perspective. If he goes to trial and loses, I doubt that he would receive more than the five year minimum for that crime. Missouri may or may not have a statute that mandates a period of supervision for all offenders after they are released from prison, but if they don't, he will not have any probation with a loss at trial.
Yes, if convicted at trial he will lose his medical license and go to prison for five years. But if he pleas he will still lose his medical license and sex offender probation is very difficult. I would rather go to prison for a couple of years than be on sex offender probation for five years. Prison is not that bad.
So his potential situation if he goes to trial and loses is not that much worse than if he pleads guilty. He will still be on the registry if he loses at trial or if he pleads. The only way he can avoid registration is an acquittal at trial.
If he feels as though he is not guilty----and it does not appear that he is----he has a chance of winning at trial and filing an appeal even if he does not win. He will have no such appeal chance if he pleads.
Personally, I would be hard pressed to plead guilty to something I did not do. I know why people do it and I understand. If your son was looking at 30 years in prison if he lost at trial, but was offered a plea of five years probation, then I could understand. But that is not the case here.
The graphic testimony will shock the jury and sometimes trials like this are won and lost on emotion, so that is not in your favor. But at the same time, not everyone is a big fan of the government these days and some might see this whole case as bordering on entrapment. Jury selection will be of the utmost importance in this trial.
I rolled the dice and lost my medical license, but I have no regrets. Going to trial was never a question to me in that it was the right thing to do FOR ME.
I took my shot and lost. I could have pled for five years, but received 20 years from the jury and I am still here, have recovered, and am as happy as I ever was. So even if he loses at trial, it will not be the end of the world.
But he has a good legal team. One thing to remember is this-----Once this is over he has a lot of life ahead of him. Will it bother him down the road knowing he pled guilty to something he did not do? Can he live with that?
I hesitated even writing this as I don't want to influence your decision, but I did want to put the options and possible consequences out here so you might get a clearer picture of the situation.
And I want to make it clear that this is his decision and his decision only. I don't want to tell him what to do, as I would understand if he pled. Just get all the cards on the table to make an informed decision.
Good luck,
rewdiazeapm
PS And Heartbroken in her response above makes some good points also. The state usually finds a way to win.
There were several Dateline cases that I think tried to go to trial and sometimes the State lost and I think most of them are in appeals. But if there was no real victim, they can't prove intent and the defense can present the appropriate things to the jury that is selected. I would think that the chances of him 'winning' at trial are better than the average joe considering the circumstances.
He didn't have the requested items the officer asked him to bring, so it shows a lack of intent to break the law, regardless of who it was he was meeting.
Another thing about trial is that if he does lose, there is always the appeal, which isn't appealing, but more readily available than when someone pleads out of court. If you plea it is admitting guilt and so there are far fewer post conviction relief things that can be done.
But Rew is right, this is really HIS decision, he is the one that will have to live with it the rest of his life.
@wisconsinrsol The Missouri statute is written specifically to exclude any defense of there not being a real victim. I don't know what you're actually allowed to say about it during the trial, but the jury is instructed to treat it as if there was an actual victim. I don't know how it affects outcome.
The trial had a hung jury and my hubby ended up taking a plea. while it wasn't the best outcome, it was a whole lot better than the 20+ years he could have gotten
If you have any questions just let me know and i will help if i can.
However, things are coming to a head and tomorrow we are to have a meeting with the DA. By tomorrow afternoon, I will probably know my son's fate. I'm terrified.
I would also disagree with Rew on prison over probation. Probation wasnt bad in my experience once I got through treatment and had a job. If he feels he is innocent I wouldn't advise pleading because in order to get through treatment and probation you are going to need to admit guilt and show contrition. If you take a plea the PO doesn't care if you are innocent or not, they only care you pleaded guilty.
Jury trials are a roll of the dice but it seems as of late they are being returned not guilty using common sense.
We met today with the attorney, but it looks like the next hearing has been bumped another week and all that will happen then is setting another hearing date. But the attorney does believe that the DA will offer a deal—possibly one that doesn't require my son to sign the SOR.
He says my son's transcript —90 chat sessions over four months—is very different from the usual two weeks then "let's meet." He feels that the case might actually be winnable in court—though it could also be lost.
First join http://floridascandal.com It is specific to FL sting cases but much of the information will be of interest and applicable to MO cases.
Obviously losing at trial and being sentenced to 5 years prison plus having to register would be terrible but right now MO is giving 1 to 1 gain time so a 5 year sentence is automatically reduced to 2.5 years. Odds are he would serve his sentence in Farmington which is an SO prison/treatment facility. Just something to consider if it gets that far.
Now what @advocate2 is talking about is contained in this zip along with some other documentation.
http://tinyurl.com/kbr8wfl
The first thing is the Internet Crimes Against Children Operational and Investigative Standards. Compliance with the ICAC Standards is mandated by federal law and an appropriate sanction for violating them is use of the exclusionary rule which means suppression of evidence. In a sting case like this that potentially means suppressing the chats and without the chats there is no case. The chat should be gone over with a fine tooth comb making note of any potential violation and the information and notes passed on to the attorney.
Another good resource to read over and make sure the attorney has is this:
http://tinyurl.com/la3dv2m
It's all about federal law but the concepts and issues discussed apply to state laws as well. Mr. Jeffress is extremely knowledgeable not only about the law but about sting tactics as well. I've talked to him several times now and anything he has to say on the subject is definitely worth paying attention to.
There is a lot more I could say but I don't want to overload you right off the bat and there's more than would ever fit in a single post. Whenever you have questions please feel free to pm me.