The client was accused of sexually abusing his step-daughter. Specifically, the step-daughter accused the defendant of sneaking into her room in the middle of the night and sexually abusing her while she was asleep, even though the house was filled with people and nobody else noticed anything. She claimed that this happened on multiple occasions.

Through the investigation, the defense learned that the step-daughter was very jealous of the defendant’s biological daughter. The step-daughter had written in her diary different ways in which she believed that the biological daughter was treated better than she was.

The step-daughter never wrote about any of the alleged incidents in her diary. Eventually, she told her mother that her step-father had sexually abused her. The mother did not believe her step daughter because the story was unbelievable. The mother had herself been in the home during the times when the step-daughter claimed that she had been abused.

Eventually, the police were called, and both the defendant and the mother were charged with crimes. On Attorney Sontz’s advice, the defendant proceeded to a jury trial. The mother received some bad legal advice and proceeded to a non-jury trial. Both cases were tried at the same time before the same judge, though the judge would decide the mother’s verdict.

The jury found the defendant NOT GUILTY of all felony counts, but hung on the remaining misdemeanors. The judge found the mother guilty of Endangering Welfare of Children for not believing her daughter’s unbelievable allegations.

The case was scheduled for a retrial, but the defendant ultimately agreed to plead to a misdemeanor in order to avoid another jury trial and to put the case to rest. He was sentenced to a short period of probation.