Our client was a successful machinist for General Mills who had recently broken up with his girlfriend. She then falsely accused him of molesting both of her children.
He was then indicted in Rockdale County Superior Court and charged with anally sodomizing her five-year-old son and molesting her seven-year-old daughter. The allegations were awful and making matters more complicated was the fact that the detective in the case was alleging that our client confessed.
We conducted our own investigation and discovered right away that the ex-girlfriend had been engaged in some very concerning behavior that likely led to the allegations being made. She was extremely controlling over our client and very manipulative. She was always accusing him of cheating on her. She eventually began spying on him, showing up at his place of employment, and accessing his Facebook account to read conversations he’d had with previous girlfriends. She even downloaded a Google location app on his phone so she could see where he was at all times. It got so bad that on one occasion she had to be escorted away by General Mills security and banned from the property.
Our client’s friends, family and co-workers became extremely concerned and, as the volatility of the situation became obvious to them, they encouraged him to leave her before she ruined his life forever. As a result, our client eventually broke up with her.
However, she did not take the breakup well and started harassing our client with incessant text messages trying to make him feel bad for her. This went on for two months. Then, on the night before the allegations were made, she tells our client that she hates him, that he left her with nothing, that she’s never forgiving him for this, and that this is “[t]he lowest moment of my f***ing life.” The next day, she takes both of her kids to the police and claims that they’ve been molested by him.
During her interview with the police, the ex-girlfriend describes very bizarre and highly suggestive questioning of her kids that she claims ultimately led to these allegations. With the questioning of her son, she even had friends of hers involved where they acted out for him how they believed our client molested him. During the detective’s interviews with the children, there were many signs that they had been coached or improperly influenced. Not to mention the fact that the ex-girlfriend claimed to work as a child acting coach and bragged about coaching her kids and managing their acting careers.
The detective interviewed our client and she claimed in her report that he confessed to molesting the children. This was concerning to us as our client had always maintained his innocence. We then reviewed the video recorded interview and learned that the detective had engaged in highly improper interrogation techniques with our client in an effort to convince him that he committed these crimes. The interview was lengthy and occurred very late at night. Eventually, she wore our client down and he began agreeing with the detective in an effort to be congenial. This was by no means a confession and we went to great lengths to convince the prosecutors of that.
In our meetings with the district attorney’s office, we presented them with extensive materials from our investigation where we pieced together the timeline and our theory as to how the ex-girlfriend orchestrated these allegations against our client. In addition to this alleged confession, another hurdle we had to overcome was the fact that our client had previously been arrested for masturbating in public. This was also what had convinced the detective from the beginning that our client was guilty. So, instead of attempting to ascertain the truth and looking at the evidence, the detective allowed this information to shape her view of the case and dictate her interrogation of our client.
After working on the case for close to a year, we were finally able to convince the district attorney’s office to dismiss the case against our client. Not only were the charges dismissed, but our client’s arrest record has been expunged as well.
Categories | Child Molestation Cases,