Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: Sexual abuse

Thanks for your posting, and I'm sorry to hear about the problem you now face with your son. What your son can expect, in general, is to be arrested, charges to be filed, there will be a court date, an arraignment, where he will plead guilty or not guilty, and choose counsel or be assigned a public defender. Legal Aid, which is a separate office, doesn't apply in criminal cases, as the public defender will be appointed if he qualifies, i.e., has no employment, or is receiving indigent support through a government agency.

From there, the case may proceed to pretrial and trial, or if filed as a felony, pretrial, preliminary hearing, felony arraignment in a higher court, and then trial.

What the minimum and maximums are for this type of offense depends on exactly what he is charged with, and his prior history, and how serious the molestation was. If you can email me the exact charges (for example, Penal Code �288), I can give you a more precise report on what the law states in regards to the minimum and maximum.

Best of luck, and I look forward to helping you in any way that I can. --Robert

Re: Sexual abuse

Robert did a great job. So I'll only add that your son needs counseling. And the court is going to require it. If your son is out of custody. Then see that he starts some sort of therapy now.

My guess is that he'll receive some sort of sentence for county jail or prison. So see if he can be placed in a locked unit at some hospital facility.