Q: My Friend was charged with forcible touching.
This charge has no witnesses. It's section 130.2 class A misdomeanor.
The person that made the charge had no witnesses and had been bothering my friend for awhile. I looked it up and this charge can get my friend a year in jail. 6 years of probation.And make him a sex offender. How can a charge like this be made with no witnesses.This can ruin a person's life. He has been going to court every 2 weeks since august 2016. He has a court appointed attorney and it just keep getting postponed.How does this stop. My friendd will not plead guilty to something he hasn't done.
A: First of all, your friend can be prosecuted based on the alleged victim's word alone, assuming the ADA assigned to the matter believes her/him. If possible I would advise him to hire private counsel if he can afford it (we, and many other attorneys, handle misdemeanors for $1,500 or less from inception through trial, so private representation can be affordable). If this is not possible, I would ask the court to assign him/her an "18-B" attorney. These are private lawyers (with a minimum 10 years experience) who also take assigned cases; in general, an 18-B attorney is more qualified than a public defender as the former must be experienced and the latter is a "right out of law school" gig for most. He/she has a constitutional right to competent counsel so if correctly requested, the judge must grant an 18-B request.
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