Minor's rights violated

What is the name of your state? Texas

I have had custody of my son since he was 8, he is now 16. My son is sociable yet poite, always yes mam, yes sir, no mam, no sir. Very protective of animals and anyone who cannot fend for themselves.

I allowed my son to live with his father for this school year because he needed some time with him. My ex has been raising his 7 yr old daughter(from current wife) because of her mothers drug use and refusal to make her go to school. He and his current wife are divorcing now and my son has been caught in the middle. After picking up her daughter for a weekend visit and refused to bring her back home to go to school the next week.

The following story comes from the mother's stepfather....
Over the weekend the mother and her boyfriend took the little girl to a hospital for examination for sexual molestation. After examination the doctor and nurse both told the mother that nothing had happened to the child, that she had no irritation or damage, that she had not been messed with in anyway. The mother protested and wanted to press charges. The doctor, nurse and police officer repeatedly told her that there was no basis for charges. She persisted until they took her statement and she was able to press charges on my son.

Two weeks later a probation officer came and picked up my son and had him put in a detention center. For seven days my son was in that detention center being verbaly abused, mentally and emotionaly beat down. He spent his Thanksgiving in there, we were allowed to talk to him only one time in the entire seven day period. we were refused when we asked for evidence of his guilt. Refused any information on the case at all. Everyone said that because they are minors that they couldn't tell us anything. On the day the detention personell took him to court, the District Attorney and Judge said that the evidence did not support him being in jail. The DA stated "I simply do not believe that this boy is like that, there is no evidence to back up the charges" The Probation officer had told my son and his father before going in that morning, that "there is no way that my son would get to be released into parental custody, this boy is gonna go back to jaill and stay in jail!" This was told to them before court by the probation officer. My son was taken out of normal school and treated like a convicted criminal, secluded off campus in AEP (alternative education program). He is not allowed on any school campus and cannot go out of the very small county he lives in. We have repeatedly asked the Probation officer and assistant District Attorney what is happening with the case. They told us no new evidence. Yet every time my son has went in to his probation appointments the officer has been nasty and very derogatory. Yesterday his whole attitide changed and he told my son and his father that "if my son moves back with me that all charges will be dropped and when he turns 18 then he can come back to see his father" What kind of law is this. My son has not been given any legal council, the DA kept telling us that one would be appointed if he went to trial. How can they run my son out of the state like that. He is innocent and they know it, all of the pshyc evals have shown him to be of college level intellegence and very emotionally stable. He has not missed a day of school and has an average of 97 in AEP. On the other hand the llittle 7 yr old who is staying with her motherr(the accuser) has missed over 2 weeks of school, has a 50 average and cries to her daddy on the phone when he gets to talk to her. The mother refuses to let her daddy see her, there has been no actionfrom the athorities to implement this, the mother has just refused to let him see his daughter.

They want my son out of the state, and let this woman go free after what she has done to my son. He has been scarred for life from this. And what of the 7 days of time he served?

I need some advice, how do I make sure that this is taken off my son's record? And what recourse do I have to prosecute this woman and the people who jailed my son for no reason. He is a minor too and his rights have been totally ignored.

These types of cases are always very difficult. The fact of the matter is that in 90% + of all family child sex cases there is zero medical evidence. Unless DNA is taken within hours of the assault it is lost (there may be general DNA found but that's expected among family members, its the evidence of bodily fluids that is lost) and unless a medical examination is done within 48 hrs after the assault, the vaginal or anal tissue will have already healed. Also "sexual molestation" isn't a legal term so if you are talking about something like indecency with a child as opposed to aggravated sexual assault of a child, than you would not expect to find medical evidence in just about any case because there usually is no trauma caused. Almost all medicals come back "normal" which means that there is no evidence of trauma, but that abuse can't be ruled out either. In other words, most medicals are useless. It is for this reason that all it really takes to get child sex cases filed is for that child to make an outcry of abuse (or for an adult to claim the child made an outcry.) In terms of proving the case, the State usually must rely on the child's testimony and circumstantial evidence.

As for the detention of your son, there is no bail in juvenile cases. The judge has the authority to detain at her discretion any child alleged to have engaged in delinquent conduct. As for the school, they are allowed to develop their own policies and many do automatically withdraw any child alleged to have committed a sex offense. I do not agree with the policy and its a real shame, but its the school's right. You can imagine their liability if they allowed the child to continue at the school and they ended up molesting another student...that's probably the main reason for the policy.

By law your child should have had an attorney appointed to him while he was in detention. Its possible this was done and you were just never told. But with the case pending, you are required to hire your own attorney unless you qualify for court appointment. Did they really say that you cannot get an attorney appointed until the case is set for trial or until the petition is filed? It is common on REALLY bad sex cases (by that I mean hard for the State to prove) for the State to not file the petition and instead hold on the charges, leaving the juvenile on a sort of informal probation referred to as deferred prosecution. He would need to stay out of trouble for a given period of time, or in this case until he aged out of the juvenile system which is at the age of 18. After this point, the case would just disappear. If there is no petition on file than you aren't entitled to a court appointed attorney on your case (son still gets one for detention hearings) but you can still hire your own. Have you or your son ever been served with the petition? It either would have been hand delivered to you at a detention hearing or served to your home by an officer.

The reason why they say your son can't see your father at his home is because the alleged victim is there. When released from detention on this type of case that is always a condition of release, that you have no contact with the victim. That would also certainly be a condition of the deferred prosecution if that is what they are offering.

I'm curious how you know all this about the nature of the child's outcry, or lack thereof. How do know the officers and others told this woman that there was no basis for a charge?

The State is accountable civilly for unlawful restraint when someone is taken into custody without cause, but in this case there was a report of a crime. I don't see how the State can be held accountable, all it takes is probable cause to file a charge and that is a very low standard to meet. As for this mother, if she knowingly falsified the allegations than that is a crime in and of itself, and in addition would make her liable for civil damages in a suit of malicious prosecution.

I'm sorry if it disheartens you but I worked in the Juvenile division of a DA's office for some time and many of our cases were no different than yours. All we had as evidence was the word of a young child. The child is always interviewed by a forensic interviewer (trained to lead them enough to get out the story but not to implant any ideas) and as prosecutors we simply watched the video and judged their credibility. Before filing the charges we'd usually watch the video first and give the accused an opportunity to give a voluntary statement of their side of the story. If we believed the victim, than we would file the charge and pursue the case to the fullest...all on the word of a child.

As for your son's record, if the State does indeed give him deferred prosecution and he successfully completes it than there will be nothing on his record. If the petition is filed and later dismissed, than the charge with notation of the dismissal will be on his juvenile record until he turns 18, at which point the record will be sealed and no one outside of law enforcement will know of the charges. Once he reaches a certain age, if he hasn't committed any adult offenses, and if he meets other requirements than he can have all documents destroyed. You'd need an attorney for that.