Need advice from you experts. I have a male Juv (16) with allegations of Agg sex assault/ Digital /anal and vaginal with 8 year old female cousin. Numerous times over 2 years???Child is credible but of course have no physical evidence or witnesses. Have a step sister who also outcryed but as a 4th grader her school records are horrible lots of discipline , filthy language/ sexually explicit stmts/ not credible/my argument is that her behavior is the end result of Perps past abuse.What is the best way to charge him?He appears perfect A honor roll/Basketball player/everyone says he's a great kid ?????Certify him?Ask for determinate sentence or take to grnd jury for possible 40 year sentence? What works best with a jury??? Have another case same question but he's only 12 and victim is 6 yr old forced to give him oral sex/ have a 6 year old female witness in that one? I know he's to young to certify??? Must be something in the water or on tv or on the internet???????

I have not had a case like this (thank goodness!) but would suggest that you consider posting to the juvenile law section of this forum. There are some very talented juvenile prosecutors from large jurisdictions there who can no doubt help you!

When I was in the juvenile division in Harris County for the mercifully short time that I was there, we almost always did determinate sentencing on the sex offenders. They were always the wimpy, shy, quiet kid in school, got good grades, and never had a criminal history. But who else would you expect to diddle the 6 year old next door? We found determinate a better sentencing than the flakey,inderterminate sentencing option. Often we found that if they didn't get better and get "rehabilitated" in the TYC sex offender program, then TDCJ was as good a place as any for them when they got old enough.

I handle a lot of juvenile sex crimes. Both scenarios you have provided are typical. The most difficult cases are the ones in which a ?great kid? is really very dangerous. In many cases, however, juvenile sex offenders are very different than adult sex offenders, and there is a lot that social service providers can do to prevent long-term dangers to the community.

Nobody wants to believe that a teenager did it, but your case is not as bad as it looks. If you go to trial, you will need a good expert witness. I?d be happy to talk to you about what I do in similar situations. 409-766-2364

Here is some good material from the American Prosecutors Research Institute about juvenile sex offenders and how to sort them out:

http://www.ndaa.org/publications/newsletters/in_re_volume_5_number_2_2002.html