Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Of course he needs an expert criminal defense firm, to help him to get the best resolution possible. As a Former Deputy District Attorney, my office has handled 100's of sex charges. Most criminal defense attorneys offer FREE consultations, so make a call asap....David Wallin

Whether to prosecute the boyfriend is up to the D.A. The girl has no authority over that decision. She can ask him not to prosecute and he will consider her wishes, but it's hard to believe he would drop the case because she wants him to. Statutory rape, which California officially calls "unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor," is a very serious crime. (That's true even when the minor is close to the age of consent, which is 18 in California. The minor in this case was two or three years too young.) So is possession of child pornography, which is what the pictures and videos amount to. Enforcing the laws against such conduct is important. Where a prosecutor believes he has enough evidence of these crimes to win a conviction, he will nearly always pursue the case. That's how it should be.

In statutory rape cases, the minor often does not want the adult prosecuted. But that's usually because of the adult's undue influence. If anything, the fact his misconduct affected the minor that way is more reason to prosecute him and not less.

California does not have a Romeo and Juliet law. (For the benefit of other readers, those are laws which make an exception to statutory rape laws when the adult and the minor are close to the same age. Some other states do have such laws.) Even if it did, the four-year age difference might make the law inapplicable here. If there was such a law and it did apply here, the prosecutor would almost certainly have factored it in already. And if he hadn't, the young man would be able to invoke the law in his defense but the minor would have no standing to raise it at all.

I agree with Mr. Wallin that the young man needs a competent defense lawyer, but that's not what you asked. Your question was whether the minor needs a lawyer. I don't see how a lawyer representing her would have any effect on the D.A.'s decision. But she might need one for other reasons, especially if some of her testimony might incriminate her.