Legal Question in Family Law in Florida

Re: Pregnancy

You have several problems of which you should be aware: 1. Even if the girl's mother doesn't report it to the police, the girl's teachers, principal, counselor, etc. will very likely report it to the police once she begins to show and it gets around that she is pregnant. 2. You should hire an attorney now to do whatever he can to minimize the potential problems that could occur once criminal charges are filed. 3. Tell your son not to discuss it with anyone, even you and your wife, because you can be called as a witness against him in criminal court. 4. If a policeman calls and wants to interview him, tell him no way until such time as you hire an attorney or until your attorney can be present at the interview. 5. If a teacher, counselor, etc. wants to discuss this with him, tell them that his attorney has advised him not to talk to them. 6. Tell him not to discuss the facts with anyone at school or work, if he is out of school, etc. Anyone he talks to can be called as a witness against him. 7. Even if he doesn't talk to anyone, the state can usually get a court order for them to take a blood test of the mother, child, and your son, to make a DNA test to determine paternity. 8. Hire an attorney now and he just might be able to keep the damage to a minimum. Statutory rape is defined as any adult having sexual intercourse with a minor child. The fact of having sex is easily determined if the father matches DNA with the mother and child. The girl cannot consent to the sex, as she is legally incapable of giving consent, so it is irrelevent if the girl consented to the sex. The penalty for this crime is life in prison according to Idaho Code section 18-6101. If the state proves he had sexual intercourse with her his is guilty, period. However, if he marries her with the consent of the parents, there generally can be no criminal case against the father, because the birth of the baby and the sexual intercours itself are legitimized by the marriage. My teleph numb is 208-345-3817 and I give a one-half hour free client conference in my office. I urge you to immediately hire an attorney to represent him in this. If you don't feel comfortable with me representing him I'll refer him to a competent attorney in this area. Good Luck!