If you have been charged with a sex crime, you know the damage a mere allegation can do to your life. Your reputation, your job, your family life and more could all be gone in a matter of moments once someone accuses you of a sex crime. Even if you are able to show that you were falsely accused or that the alleged victim is not credible, you may still have to work hard to rebuild people’s trust. It is extremely important that you work with an experienced criminal defense lawyer from the very moment someone accuses you of a sex crime in order to best prove your innocence and preserve your rights.
One of the hardest charges to shake, however, is an allegation that you committed a sex crime against a child. Unfortunately for one man, two 18-year-old accusations have crossed international waters and may lead to an extradition. The 43-year-old Irish man had been visiting family in Minnesota in 1994 when the allegations formed.
Two then 11-year-old girls alleged that the then 24-year-old man had previously shown them sexually suggestive pictures of women. They also the man showed the girls’ his genitals after he exited the shower in a towel. The girls told police the towel had fallen slightly.
The other alleged victim says that the man raped her in the back seat of a vehicle after she took a ride with him. The two met at a car mechanic’s shop. The woman claims he took her for a ride and then she got drunk on vodka and peach schnapps.
In order to drag a man from his home and bring him across an ocean and to a country he no longer lives in on a criminal charge requires credible evidence. In this case, however, a man is being extradited for something that allegedly happened 18 years ago, calling into question just how reliable everyone’s memories, testimony and statements will be.
Source: Star Tribune, “Minnesota women await justice in 1994 sex abuse case,” Pam Louwagie, Dec. 2, 2011
