Sexual Assault Charges in Texas: More Often, Women are Accused of Sex Crimes
Sexual assault arrests in Texas are life-changing situations: anyone busted for sexual assault here faces serious felony charges with the possibility of a long sentence in a Texas state prison. Just being arrested by police on a charge of “sexual assault” can cause major and permanent damage to someone’s reputation and relationships both personally and professionally.
It’s true that the law protects the accused as being innocent until proven guilty; however, when someone is charged with a sex crime, all too often gossip and innuendo parley that allegation into some kind of twisted truth that can surround the individual and his family and friends for years and years.
Sexual Assault Investigations on College Campuses
Investigations into sexual assaults are becoming more of a target of law enforcement; for instance, we just wrote about the federal authorities looking into campus sexual assaults. The Department of Justice is looking into a growing number of university and college campuses to determine how sexual assault allegations are being handled internally at these schools and whether or not campus sex crimes are being underreported or under-investigated by campus police. (Southern Methodist University is on this list.)
When we published that article, the number of campuses being investigated by federal authorities was 55. Today, it’s up to 64 different schools. Notably, the federal focus is not upon state sex crime laws and their violation, but instead upon whether or not the victim’s federal civil rights have been violated.
Sexual Assault Investigations in the Military and by Police
Recent news stories are also pointing to rampant sexual assault incidents in both the United States military as well as within various branches of law enforcement. Many of these are going unreported or under-investigated. A Department of Defense study into the issue debates whether or not the rise in sexual assaults is due to more people coming forward to report the incident or whether there is a rise in the number of sexual assaults taking place. Statistics show that there was a 50% jump in sexual assault charges being filed in 2013 within the military.
Sexual assaults by police officers also seem to be coming under greater scrutiny in recent years and many more victims have stepped forward and pressed charges. Remember the Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper who performed that intrusive search on two women on the side of a public road? She’s now facing sexual assault charges.
For details on that DPS Trooper sexual assault story, read our earlier post that includes the dashcam video of the actual event as it happened, “Dallas Roadside Body Search by DPS Troopers Now Subject to Federal Lawsuit – Shocking Video of Dallas Roadside Search of Two Innocent Women.”
Sexual Assault Charges Brought Against Women
What may be most surprising to many is the apparent increase in sex crime charges being brought against women. In most of these cases, the female defendant is defending against allegations of improper sexual conduct with minors and violence ordinarily is not a factor.
Consider these examples:
1. This week, a woman named Iliana Raquel Reyes was arrested and charged with two counts of sexual assault with a child based upon a June 11, 2014, incident in her back yard in Waller, Texas, a suburb of Houston. According to news reports, Ms. Reyes had hired two teenagers to work on a shed in the yard, and after the two boys (ages 14 and 16) were done, she invited them into the swimming pool, provided them with alcoholic beverages, and had sex with each of them.
2. Three weeks ago, Cassandra Stone, 34, was sentenced to 25 years in a Texas prison after she pled guilty to aggravated sexual assault of a child as part of a plea deal. Stone, with another female and one male, were found to have “acted in concert” in the sexual assault of a child at the man’s home. Peggy Weinberg, the other female defendant here, also entered into a plea agreement on charges of aggravated sexual assault of a child and sexual performance of a child.
3. Last week, over in El Paso, a Las Cruces woman was arrested on accusations of performing sexual acts on a minor female. The child awoke as the woman, Polly Tellez, was removing her clothing, and was overpowered by Tellez according to police reports. Tellez allegedly attempted suicide at the home immediately after the incident, with the girl first stopping Tellez from stabbing herself with a knife before escaping and getting help.
Defending Females Accused of Sexual Assault
As sexual assaults and sex crimes continue to be a bigger focus of law enforcement, we can expect to see more charges being brought in Dallas and across the State of Texas regarding sex crimes and felony sexual assaults. More female defendants are going to be facing felony charges and serious prison time in the future, as well.
And while both men and women deserve an equally aggressive criminal defense, those female defendants dealing with allegations of sexual criminal acts have an even bigger battle to fight in the courtroom and in the arena of public opinion.
It is news to no one in Dallas or Fort Worth or elsewhere in Texas that a female who has been arrested for sexual assault charges will face an ever bigger stigma and more powerful social backlash than the man who is charged with the exact same crime as defined in the Texas Penal Code.
For more details, review the site’s list of Michael Lowe Case Results in Sexual Assault Cases.
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