Sex Crimes
Sex crime charges carry weight that other criminal charges do not. The stigma attaches early, often before any finding of fact, and it can affect employment, housing, family relationships, and professional standing regardless of how a case ultimately resolves.
These cases also turn on evidence that is frequently circumstantial and open to more than one interpretation. The McDaniel Law Firm represents clients throughout Memphis and the surrounding counties in matters ranging from misdemeanor offenses to the most serious felony allegations, with the discretion and preparation these cases require.
Sex crime charges in Tennessee are configured according to three main factors and the way they intersect with the circumstances of a particular case. These factors are age — especially the age of the alleged victim — lack of consent, which may or may not entail direct coercion, and relationship of authority between the defendant and the alleged victim, which is susceptible to an abuse of power. How those three elements combine determines both the offense charged and the exposure it carries.
Sex crime charges can be among the most personally devastating to face, not least because they often arise in the context of a prior or existing relationship between the defendant and the alleged victim. Even when there is no such interpersonal history, the stigma that attaches to these charges can make a defendant’s personal and professional life more difficult. The long-term social and career consequences of that stigma can follow a defendant for years, even where they are ultimately acquitted at trial. The outcomes of a conviction are of course commensurately more severe, and can include being required to register as a sex offender.
Our experienced Memphis defense attorneys are prepared to leave no stone unturned in defense of a client’s interests. The evidence submitted by the prosecution in a sex crime case is often circumstantial at best, and susceptible to more than one interpretation. We conduct a thorough review of all the evidence and support our clients by recommending and then implementing a targeted defense strategy based on the specific factors present in each case.
Under T.C.A. § 39-13-514, patronizing prostitution is a Class B misdemeanor — among the lower-level offenses in Tennessee’s criminal code, carrying up to six months and a fine of up to $500. But the statute contains a geographic enhancement that operates independently of anything about the alleged conduct itself, and it changes the exposure substantially.
Where the offense occurs within one hundred feet of a church, or within one and one-half miles of a school, it becomes a Class A misdemeanor. And a conviction within that one-and-a-half-mile radius of a school carries a mandatory minimum of seven days incarceration and a minimum fine of one thousand dollars, imposed in addition to any other penalty. These are floors a court cannot sentence beneath. The statute defines school to include all public and private schools conducting classes in any grade from kindergarten through twelve.
The practical significance of that radius is easy to underestimate. A mile and a half is a considerable distance, and in a city the size of Memphis, the areas falling outside every such radius are limited. The enhancement therefore applies far more often than its language suggests it would — frequently without anyone involved having been aware of a school’s proximity, which the statute does not require. Whether a particular location falls within the measured distance is a factual question, and it is one that can be verified rather than assumed.
Charges of this kind also frequently arise from organized operations rather than individual complaints, which means the circumstances of the encounter — what was said, by whom, and at whose initiation — tend to be documented and are open to examination.
A conviction here carries consequences well beyond the sentence, particularly for someone whose employment, professional licensing, or immigration status is affected by a criminal record. If you have been charged in the Memphis area, call 901-527-6518.
The general offense under § 39-13-511 is a Class B misdemeanor, carrying up to six months and a fine of up to $500.
Where the defendant is eighteen or older and the victim is under thirteen, the offense is elevated to a Class A misdemeanor, carrying up to eleven months and twenty-nine days and a fine of up to $2,500.
The offense becomes a Class E felony where the defendant is eighteen or older, the victim is under thirteen, and either the defendant has two or more qualifying prior convictions or is a registered offender as defined in § 40-39-202 — or where the offense occurs on the property of a school or licensed childcare facility at a time children are likely to be present. A Class E felony carries one to six years.
One further provision is worth knowing about. Where a charge rests on conduct alleged to have occurred within the defendant’s own residence, the statute bars prosecution based solely on the uncorroborated testimony of a witness who shares a domestic relationship with the accused, as those relationships are defined in § 36-3-601. In cases arising from a household dispute, whether any corroboration exists is a threshold question.
Facing an indecent exposure charge in Memphis or the surrounding counties? Call 901-527-6518. The range of outcomes under this statute is unusually wide, and the specific facts determine where a case falls within it.
Usually not. The baseline offense is a Class B misdemeanor. It rises to a Class A misdemeanor or a Class E felony only in specific circumstances involving the age of the defendant and the alleged victim, prior convictions, or the location of the alleged conduct.
That goes to an element of the offense. Tennessee’s statute requires a reasonable expectation that the conduct would be viewed by another. Where that expectation was absent, the state may not be able to establish the offense as charged.
Tennessee enhances this offense based on location. Within one hundred feet of a church or one and one-half miles of a school, it becomes a Class A misdemeanor, and a conviction near a school carries a mandatory minimum jail sentence and fine. Whether the location falls inside that radius is a factual question worth confirming.
