How can I protect myself and future career outlook?

[stew311]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Indiana

I was charged with child molestation when I was 11, I'm 24 now. The charges were dropped 4 months later as a result of no evidence plus I had 6 alibi's willing to testify as to where I was at the time it supposedly took place. My question is, when taking that into account if one of the people involved or the people who found out about the charges at that time comes out and says I did it, can they be sued for defamation or anything? I endured death threats, was beaten up, and experienced several years of harassment by several kids that had found out about this. I am an actor/business owner and am worried about something like this coming out and affecting my career especially seeing as when stuff like this comes out people usually jump to the conclusion that you're guilty and since it never went to trial and the charges were only dropped I wasn't sure if there is any legal recourse for me in order to protect myself.

Further details: My accusers brother violated the gag order and told numerous people around the neighborhood that I had done this. They then spread it around school thus resulting in several beating, death threats, knives being pulled on me, and just overall harassment for the next 3 and a half years. This was from 6th grade till middle of my freshman year. They dropped the charges 4 months after they brought them but the damage was already done. To this day my little sister still hangs out with her and she is over at my house all the time and gives my dirty looks, my assumption is that her parents continued to tell her that I had done it. Her parents were both cops so they got away with quite a bit of stuff in terms of not abiding by the judges orders and overall harassment.

So again my big question is how can I protect myself in the future? When I say I'm an actor I'm not implying that I have aspirations of fame or anything, but I have gotten several offers for television work that would imply national exposure, considering how many people watch a show on average. So I'm trying to figure out what course of action I can take to protect myself simply in that regard. They've already ruined a large chunk of my childhood I just want to make sure all the work that I've done to get to where I am isn't in vain.

 

[drruthless]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Indiana

I was charged with child molestation when I was 11, I'm 24 now. The charges were dropped 4 months later as a result of no evidence plus I had 6 alibi's willing to testify as to where I was at the time it supposedly took place. My question is, when taking that into account if one of the people involved or the people who found out about the charges at that time comes out and says I did it, can they be sued for defamation or anything? I endured death threats, was beaten up, and experienced several years of harassment by several kids that had found out about this. I am an actor/business owner and am worried about something like this coming out and affecting my career especially seeing as when stuff like this comes out people usually jump to the conclusion that you're guilty and since it never went to trial and the charges were only dropped I wasn't sure if there is any legal recourse for me in order to protect myself.

Further details: My accusers brother violated the gag order and told numerous people around the neighborhood that I had done this. They then spread it around school thus resulting in several beating, death threats, knives being pulled on me, and just overall harassment for the next 3 and a half years. This was from 6th grade till middle of my freshman year. They dropped the charges 4 months after they brought them but the damage was already done. To this day my little sister still hangs out with her and she is over at my house all the time and gives my dirty looks, my assumption is that her parents continued to tell her that I had done it. Her parents were both cops so they got away with quite a bit of stuff in terms of not abiding by the judges orders and overall harassment.

So again my big question is how can I protect myself in the future? When I say I'm an actor I'm not implying that I have aspirations of fame or anything, but I have gotten several offers for television work that would imply national exposure, considering how many people watch a show on average. So I'm trying to figure out what course of action I can take to protect myself simply in that regard. They've already ruined a large chunk of my childhood I just want to make sure all the work that I've done to get to where I am isn't in vain.

I read your post several times. You tell how people did this to you.
you had six people say you weren't even there when it happened
You endeared several beatings, death threats, knives being pulled on you, and just overall harassment for the next 3 and a half years. This was from 6th grade till middle of my freshman year.
Was any of this reported to the police? What did they do?

So you had a miserable childhood and the charges were dropped for one reason or another.
The one thing missing from your post are the words
"I didn't do it."

But you ask.. how can I protect myself in the future?
You can't
People tend to have long memories when it comes to child molestation especially the victims.
You could move or change your name
but you're an actor so my best advice is you continue to act like you did nothing wrong..

..________________________________
~ The thing about getting old is your body has a way of telling you when it's time to start making decisions using a different part of your anatomy. ~ drr

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Indiana

I was charged with child molestation when I was 11, I'm 24 now. The charges were dropped 4 months later as a result of no evidence plus I had 6 alibi's willing to testify as to where I was at the time it supposedly took place. My question is, when taking that into account if one of the people involved or the people who found out about the charges at that time comes out and says I did it, can they be sued for defamation or anything? I endured death threats, was beaten up, and experienced several years of harassment by several kids that had found out about this. I am an actor/business owner and am worried about something like this coming out and affecting my career especially seeing as when stuff like this comes out people usually jump to the conclusion that you're guilty and since it never went to trial and the charges were only dropped I wasn't sure if there is any legal recourse for me in order to protect myself.

Further details: My accusers brother violated the gag order and told numerous people around the neighborhood that I had done this. They then spread it around school thus resulting in several beating, death threats, knives being pulled on me, and just overall harassment for the next 3 and a half years. This was from 6th grade till middle of my freshman year. They dropped the charges 4 months after they brought them but the damage was already done. To this day my little sister still hangs out with her and she is over at my house all the time and gives my dirty looks, my assumption is that her parents continued to tell her that I had done it. Her parents were both cops so they got away with quite a bit of stuff in terms of not abiding by the judges orders and overall harassment.

So again my big question is how can I protect myself in the future? When I say I'm an actor I'm not implying that I have aspirations of fame or anything, but I have gotten several offers for television work that would imply national exposure, considering how many people watch a show on average. So I'm trying to figure out what course of action I can take to protect myself simply in that regard. They've already ruined a large chunk of my childhood I just want to make sure all the work that I've done to get to where I am isn't in vain.

There is no way to prevent people from speaking about you, and you cannot erase memories.

There is only legal recourse available if what is said about you to others is false and injures your reputation, or possibly if what is revealed to others discloses private and personal facts, or if what is disclosed violates a direct court order not to speak of what has been discussed in court.

If you plan to be an actor, you should probably get used to people lying about you. It sort of comes with the territory. Learn how to address those statements that are true (by saying you were charged with child molestation when you were young but the charges were dismissed due to lack of evidence) and how to address those statements that are lies (by ignoring them as drruthless suggests, or by consulting with a lawyer in your area if the lies have harmed you in a demonstrable way).

 

[stew311]

Yeah I kind of forgot the whole didn't do it part but kind of figured the 6 alibi's and saying that it supposedly happened spoke for itself. I was at a friends house when all of it supposedly happen and was no where near my accuser's house. While I agree with the figure out how to approach it if it comes out, the issue is that I want to do everything to prevent it even coming out. The main reason is due to our society's tendency to rush to judgement on things like this. While it's understandable to viciously attack someone who is guilty of the sort of crime the problem is that in cases like this it is guilty until... no you're still guilty in our eyes no matter what. So my big problem is the rushing to judgement that people do. Again my goals are not fame related so I have no illusions that it would be similar to say Brad Pitt or another famous actor being outed where it would be plastered all over the place. That being said, word does get around and in the acting business it's all about image. So if the public jumps to a conclusion and holds onto it, as is often the case, work will dry up as no one would want to hire me.

 

[Silverplum]

Yeah I kind of forgot the whole didn't do it part but kind of figured the 6 alibi's and saying that it supposedly happened spoke for itself. I was at a friends house when all of it supposedly happen and was no where near my accuser's house. While I agree with the figure out how to approach it if it comes out, the issue is that I want to do everything to prevent it even coming out. The main reason is due to our society's tendency to rush to judgement on things like this. While it's understandable to viciously attack someone who is guilty of the sort of crime the problem is that in cases like this it is guilty until... no you're still guilty in our eyes no matter what. So my big problem is the rushing to judgement that people do. Again my goals are not fame related so I have no illusions that it would be similar to say Brad Pitt or another famous actor being outed where it would be plastered all over the place. That being said, word does get around and in the acting business it's all about image. So if the public jumps to a conclusion and holds onto it, as is often the case, work will dry up as no one would want to hire me.

How do you propose to prevent incorrect gossip?

 

[stew311]

Well... I'm not above brainwashing. But seriously, I'm understandably not ever going to be 100% protected in that regard from this. That being said I'm trying to figure out ways to minimize the chance of it coming to light. Currently it's not an issue, I've had one small walk on role on a TV show. But, as happens in this industry once you've gotten a break, I've started getting more offers. More offers obviously equates to more exposure, and more exposure ups the chances of this potentially coming out and derailing my career. It's one thing if you are known as an actor and have some pull. Then you have a better chance of weathering the storm. But no matter who you are in this industry, especially someone like me just started out, you are considered to be extremely expendable.

 

[stew311]

When I say minimize I guess my big thing is I'm trying to figure out if there is a way to preemptively silence someone under threat of a lawsuit. Like say for example confronting some of these people, not violently, with documentation that the charges were dropped and trying to get them to sign some kind of legal document stating that if they came forward, now having knowledge that the charges were in fact dropped, and say that I did it, they would be facing some kind of punishment. I understand I could sue them anyway, but having them sign something, if I can get them to, may eliminate the burden of proof aspect from the lawsuit. That's again my probably legally uninformed way of thinking I could do it.

 

[stew311]

My other way of looking at it is what if I was able to get the family to sign a legal document that stated that I didn't do it? As I said in the original post, my sisters hang out with this girl and the oldest of the two is pretty much her best friend. My sisters don't know that this happened by the way, we tried to keep them from that as best we could. And they also hang out with one of their sons as well. And my parents aren't on bad terms with them either. Her father is also not an unreasonable guy, he's a police detective. It's mainly her mother , who has some kind of mental disorder, recently diagnosed apparently, who is the problem. And I have a feeling that she spent her whole daughters life convincing her that this happened.

Just to clarify another aspect of the case. The molestation that allegedly took place was that her mother found an x drawn on her vagina with a permanent marker when she was 4. Something to note is that her mother had admittedly recently taught her about certain body parts and my theory is that she did it to herself out of curiosity and when caught pointed the finger at me as a way of getting out of trouble, as little kids are prone to do.

 

[quincy]

You cannot "preemptively silence someone under the threat of a lawsuit" under the circumstances you are describing here.

If you haven't had the records of your arrest and the charges expunged, you would be smart to do that.

Otherwise, you learn to live with what happened in the past and, if falsehoods are communicated about you in the future, you deal with them at that time.

 

[stew311]

What about the other part? Getting, in writing, from the family that I didn't do it. That would essentially eliminate the "victim" from the equation. No victim, no crime. That way if someone did come forward they wouldn't have a leg to stand on and would simply be viewed as some idiot trying to destroy someone's reputation. Obviously I know getting something like that is a long shot. But wouldn't that essentially be the best protection as it would pretty much prevent the family from ever saying anything, in terms of believability, as I would have written proof to the contrary? Essentially what I'm asking is if I had something like that, would it render anyone coming forward pointless. Again bearing in mind that I understand it's a long shot.

 

[stew311]

I also want to point out that getting them to sign it wouldn't necessarily be an attempt to silence them as I suggested for the others, this would simply be a sort of, well I've got this to prove the contrary. And yes I did have the record of the charges expunged. I was never arrested, simply put on house arrest for 4 months until the charges were dropped. Could only leave to go to school and had to be accompanied by an adult anywhere else I went.

 

[quincy]

What about the other part? Getting, in writing, from the family that I didn't do it. That would essentially eliminate the "victim" from the equation. No victim, no crime. That way if someone did come forward they wouldn't have a leg to stand on and would simply be viewed as some idiot trying to destroy someone's reputation. Obviously I know getting something like that is a long shot. But wouldn't that essentially be the best protection as it would pretty much prevent the family from ever saying anything, in terms of believability, as I would have written proof to the contrary? Essentially what I'm asking is if I had something like that, would it render anyone coming forward pointless. Again bearing in mind that I understand it's a long shot.

I think that having the purported victim, who was four at the time, sign a letter saying you did not sexually molest her when you both were children is a very bad idea, as is having the family of the girl sign such a letter.

After going to the trouble of having all records of the arrest and charges expunged, with the letter you would be creating a new record that would no doubt be published if you ever become famous, raising issues that may never be raised otherwise.

If you are faced with false stories circulating about you in the future, address them at that time.

Or you can see an attorney in your area to discuss the matter.