Second degree sexual assault of a child: Sexual contact or intercourse with a child who has not attained the age of 16 years

Second degree sexual assault of a child is a serious charge.  Contact the experts at Van Severen Law Office: (414) 270-0202

Second degree sexual assault of a child is a Class C felony.  That means that upon conviction, the maximum penalty for this offense is 40 years in prison.  That 40 years in prison breaks down into 25 years initial confinement and 15 years of extended supervision.  Certainly this offense is a high-level felony and taken very seriously by prosecutors.

At Van Severen Law Office we attack your criminal charges in an aggressive, intelligent manner.  We file appropriate motions, negotiate case issues, and proceed to trial regularly for individuals defending against sexual assault allegations.  Frequently we’re in court for both sexual assault cases involving adults, and sexual assault cases involving children.  Our sexual assault defense attorneys are consistently recognized amongst the best in Wisconsin, and aggressively fight for all our clients.

Fighting a charge like this on your own is usually a very bad idea.  Again, the consequences of a mistake will be catastrophic.  At Van Severen Law Office, 100% of our focus is on criminal charges.  Every single day our criminal defense attorneys interact with clients facing charges just like yours.  Contact us at (414) 270-0202 and let’s start fighting your case.

What is second degree sexual assault of a child?

Section 948.02(2) of the Wisconsin Statutes prohibits second degree sexual assault of a child.  Specifically, the charge focuses on sexual contact and sexual intercourse with a child under 16 years old.  The statutes provides:

Whoever has sexual contact or sexual intercourse with a person who has not attained the age of 16 years is guilty of a Class C felony.

Secondly, the statute goes on to indicate that this isn’t a crime if section 948.093 (Underage sexual activity) applies to the scenario.  That law indicates that:

Whoever has sexual contact with a child who has attained the age of 15 ears but has not attained the age of 16 years, or whoever has sexual intercourse with a child who has attained the age of 15 years, is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor if the actor has not attained the age of 19 years when the violation occurs.  This section does not apply if the actor is the child’s spouse.

Finally, section 948.093 is basically another version of statutory rape.  The legislature recognized that the facts above, while the same as second degree sexual assault of a child, should not apply when the defendant is younger than 19.  Certainly this is a wise move by the legislature, as a consensual relationship between two young people should not result in a serious felony conviction.

What are the elements of this offense?

All criminal charges in Wisconsin have elements.  An element is a part of the offense.  And finally, to sustain a conviction, the government must prove all of the elements beyond a reasonable doubt.  Wisconsin Criminal Jury Instruction 2104 provides the two elements of second degree sexual assault of a child:

• Firstly, the defendant had sexual contact or intercourse with the victim; and
• Secondly, the victim was under the age of 16 years old at the time of the sexual contact or intercourse.

Importantly, knowledge of the victim’s age isn’t required for the government to prove its case.  And secondly, mistake of the victim’s age is not a defense.  Finally, consent to the sexual or intercourse is not a defense.  These points are important.  If the victim shows you some kind of fake identification that displays the incorrect age, and you have sex with him or her, you’re committing a crime.

How do we defend my second degree sexual assault of a child case?

Certainly all criminal cases have some sort of defense.  How strong or weak that defense is depends upon the facts of the case.

Frequently one of the issues we encounter while defending sexual assault cases is victim credibility.  The government’s case certainly relies on how believable the victim is.  Frequently our investigators will make contact with the friends and family of the victim.  Has he or she previously accused other individuals of doing the same thing?  Are there other issues which can allow us to more effectively point out that the victim is a liar?  Sometimes we’ll file a motion called  Shiffra Green motion.  If granted, that allows us access to certain psych records of the victim.

Did you give a statement?  (If you haven’t given a statement, don’t.)  Giving a statement is one of the ways the government’s case gets stronger.  After all, if there were holes in the victim’s story, and you filled them up, what stronger evidence could there be?  In every confession case we’ll examine how the police interrogated you.  Did they read your Miranda rights?  Did they force you to talk?  Lastly, was the statement a false confession?  Our criminal defense attorneys will examine all these issues while fighting your case.

Finally, this list isn’t complete.  Certainly there are a lot more issues involved in defending any kind of criminal case.  But every case is different.  We’ll dig through yours and find all the issues to fight.

Why should I hire Van Severen Law Office?

We’re specialists.  This is what we focus our practice on.  While a lot of firms will work on any kind of case for the right amount of money, that’s not how we operate.  We only defend individuals involved in criminal and drunk driving cases.  And that consistently helps us achieve much better results.

Contact one of our sexual assault defense attorneys at (414) 270-0202.  We answer our phones at night, on the weekends, and on holidays, so don’t delay.