Legal Question in Criminal Law in Michigan

You're entitled to appeal your conviction. To do so, you will want to consider hiring an experienced appellate attorney or asking the court to appoint an appellate attorney for you.

www.SexCrimeAttorneys.com

I see that you live in Sterling Heights and am assuming that you're matter was in Macomb County. Yes, you can appeal. Be extra careful because there are time limitations to appeals. What are your guidelines? Your sentencing is going to be very important. If you're attorney is not doing a good job defending you, I suggest you retain another competent attorney. Also, at the sentencing, you can ask the Judge for a stay allowing you an opporunity to appeal defects in your case. Feel free to contact our law office at Attorneys of Michigan (248) 865-4700, ask for Daniel Hajji. He can help you.

Just because testimony was allowed at one hearing does not mean that it'll be allowed at another hearing -- especially a jury trial. Whether the trial judge properly ruled that the "force or coercion" evidence was inadmissible may depend on what subsections of MCL 750.520e were listed in the Information (charging document) saying how you were guilty of CSC 4th Degree.

Also, keep in mind that, on appeal, judges' rulings on the admissibility of evidence are generally reviewed on an "abuse of discretion" standard.

For example, if the subsection saying that "the victim was 13-15 years old and the defendant was 5 or more years older" or the subsection saying that you two were "related by blood or affinity to the third degree" was charged, then the victim's testimony that you didn't use force or coercion to accomplish the sexual touching probably was correct. Why? The prosecutor doesn't have to prove "force or coercion" for those theoriies. But, if you were charged under the subsection claiming that you "effected sexual contact through force or coercion", then the judge was probably wrong.

Your claim that the officer "lied" to you during the investigation isn't necessarily a 'defense' or an appeal issue. As an interrogation technique, the office can tell you that he's got certain evidence in hand (e.g., a videotape shows the crime; an eye witness said "X, Y & Z"; your fingerprint was found on a key piece of evidence; a lab report shows that your DNA was found; etc.) to see what your reaction is. Some people confess after they think that the jig is up because the police have the goods on them.

You didn't say why the investigation was flawed, so we can't respond to that part of yuor posting.