Michigan Sex Crime Attorneys Blog

Lake Michigan College has recently announced that a student who had been expelled because his name was listed on the Michigan sex registry will be allowed to stay on campus. Another student who had also been expelled was reinstated last year. The change in policy comes as the result of legal action brought by the American Civil Liberties Union challenging LMC's policy barred students who had been convicted of sex crimes involving children from attending their classes. At the time, three students were identified as having been convicted of sex crimes with children and faced expulsion.

The policy drew significant criticism due to its blanket approach and the fact that it singled-out individuals without regard to the specific nature of the crime or an evaluation of the surrounding circumstances.

The policy was revised in June to include all sex offenders and those individuals convicted of felonies from attending classes on campus. However, it was amended to provide an opportunity for students to request a hearing to review their individual cases.

Although the new policy still requires individuals go through hoops, a representative notes, "It's a ... more reasoned and appropriate approach to dealing with student who have any criminal background, including sex offenses and other crimes." An ACLU representative adds, "We support out colleges and universities in their efforts to screen out students who may pose a threat...However, a blanket ban that doesn't take into account a student's risk level, age of the offense and rehabilitation efforts is unfair and illegal."

Continue reading "Michigan Registered Sex Offenders Allowed Back On Campus" »

Over the last few weeks the Detroit Free Press has published a series of articles detailing the tumultuous and horrific struggles endured by the Wendrow family as the result of a misguided sexual assault investigation.

The incident arose out of a criminal sexual assault investigation beginning in 2007 with the use of "facilitated communication." While at school, an assistant facilitator claimed that the Wendrow's autistic and mute daughter had alleged that the father had been sexually abusing her. Despite the questionable validity of this testing method - law enforcement and police officers aggressively prosecuted the case, locking Julian Wendrow up in the Oakland county jail, placing his wife Thal on house arrest and forbidding the parents from speaking to their other children.

Along the way, several horrible instances of misconduct occurred, including police officers lying to the family's son about evidence they had of his father's raping his sister. The case was ultimately dropped, but not without significant hardship to the family -the parents, siblings and child involved.

As stated by a family representative "At every possible opportunity, law enforcement -- when they should have been doing their job and seeking the truth - they did just the opposite ... they chose to assume - without any evidence of any kind - to assume right off the bat that this had literally occurred, even though there was nothing to support it, the search warrant didn't support it, the medical exam didn't support it. Even the people who reported it didn't believe that (the child) had been abused."

Continue reading "Wendrow Sex Abuse Case Reveals System Of Errors, Injustice" »

Sex crime charges have been dropped against two members of a Michigan punk rock band accused of first-degree sexual assault. Representatives of the men stated that although the men are happy, their lives were still "turned upside down" by the wrongful accusation and incarceration.

If you have been charged with any sex crime, it is important to contact an experienced Michigan criminal sexual conduct lawyer immediately to protect your rights and your future.

Here, members of the punk rock band Goddamn Gallows went to a friend's house for a party following a show in Connecticut. An uninvited woman came to the party and had consensual sex with the two men. She subsequently charged the men with rape, for which they spent three weeks in jail. One of the men, Urian Baker of Lansing, Michigan was unable to leave Connecticut and return to his Michigan home to work for several months.

Unfortunately, false accusations are far too common in sex crimes cases. The law only requires an allegation be made - as a result, an individual may be convicted of a criminal sexual conduct offense without any physical evidence or supporting evidence. Over zealous prosecutors and law enforcement officials often proceed with charges despite little evidence - turning the lives of the accused upside down and creating a significant injustice for those facing wrongful charges.

Continue reading "Sexual Assault Charges Dropped Against Michigan Rock Band" »

Grand Rapids news reports that the Michigan Supreme Court will review the trial of a man convicted of a raping a woman at gun-point. In 2002, a Kent County jury convicted Ramon Bryant for an alleged rape and armed robbery he committed at age 16.

However, as the result of computer glitch the jury pool only included one black. The constitution guarantees individuals the right to trial by a jury of your peers. Here, the Supreme Court will consider whether the disproportionate number of non-black jurors to black jurors deprived Bryant of this right.

If you have been charged with a Michigan sex crime, it is important to contact an experienced Michigan sex crimes defense lawyer to provide a vigorous defense and protect your constitutional rights.

The computer glitch occurred between 2001 and 2002. A juror selection program identified too few jurors from certain zip codes that had high minority populations. Although no one has the right to have the jury made up of one particular group, the jury must represent a fair cross section of the community. The glitch - even if unintentional - may have created an unfair jury pool, resulting in an unfair conviction.

Continue reading "Kent County Rape Conviction To Be Reviewed Due To Unfair Jury Pool" »