How Can I Prove My Innocence if Accused of Sexual Assault in Illinois? Facing sexual assault charges in the state of Illinois? Attorneys Joshua Boardman and Andrew Russek from Combs Waterkotte discuss everything you need to know about proving your innocence in Illinois.
Combs Waterkotte is a leading criminal defense law firm serving Illinois and Missouri. Our Illinois defense attorneys will fight for your freedom and rights. If you are facing sexual assault charges anywhere in Illinois, we can help. Call us at (312) 500-HELP 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Interview Transcript
Scott Michael Dunn: How do I prove my innocence if I’m accused of sexual assault in Illinois?
Joshua Boardman: Remember, you don’t have to prove anything. It’s the burden of the State to prove that you committed the acts you are charged. But, it’s important that you understand your ability to create a defense that’s going to prevent the State from, whether it’s in front of a judge or jury, meeting that burden of proof, which is beyond a reasonable doubt. You want to attack the credibility, you want to, if there are alibis, if you have defenses of consent, if there’s any opportunity throughout the case to cast any doubt on the testimony, or cast any doubt on any of the evidence that the state’s going to try to use against you, then that’s what you can do to avoid the charge. But, once again, you don’t have to prove anything. It is the sole responsibility of the State to prove. But it’s your job to create the doubt through your defenses.
Dunn: So, what should I do if I’m accused of sexual assault?
Andrew Russek: Given how serious those allegations can be, reaching out to an attorney is an important avenue. Depending on what you mean by accused — you’re just hearing the rumor mill that someone’s saying it, or you hear they actually went to the police, or they’re just posting about it online — these can move very quick. Because if you’re a prosecutor or a police officer and you hear someone saying they were assaulted or raped, that they’re going to take that seriously. It’s almost akin to murder for some people. So, you need to start potentially having an attorney walk you through your options. If you are going to go an alibi defense as we talked earlier, you may need to start documenting your social media and reminding friends. Because if you hear you’re being accused of rape six months prior, it’s going to be more difficult to find friends, find proof, find text messages to show that I wasn’t even there that night or this is actually how it went down. So, that’s one big thing is to start preserving and creating your investigation early, but then also having an attorney potentially reach out to law enforcement, get an idea of what’s going on, and how can we potentially put an end to this when it’s just allegations.
