Q: Accused pleads guilty to sex w/ minor but alleged victim and alleged witness may have inadvertently admitted false acc.
20 year old accused of relations with 14 y.o. that frequented his college, a girl they shared mutual friends with started stalking him at college. She allegedly had IMs with him claiming they had sex. He plead guilty which meant no conviction. Honestly I think the 19 year old mutual friend hacked computer while visiting his roommate, but long story short he's on the Sex Offender Registry. Accuser had the alleged story posted in Chicken Soup. Their mutual friend mentioned earlier that went to his house, submitted a statement as an alleged witness, and was also one of the characters in the story. The accused man's sister sends FB message to mutual friend(MF) telling her about the story. MF said she asked accuser about it and said "apparently she made all that sh*t up and got paid $1000 for it". MF won't tell police. Can we do anything? We're in Texas.
A:
You need to consult with an attorney that focuses on criminal appeals in Texas state courts. It is possible that the defendant waived some of his rights to appeal when he entered a guilty plea and you probably either need the alleged victim to recant and preferably also a statement from the person who paid her $1000 for the story.
Fighting a case AFTER it is over is 10x as costly and has 100x less chance of success than fighting it while it is still pending the first time.
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