Mr. J. was accused of traveling through a neighborhood and committing sex acts inside of his car in front of 3 different girls. When the girls were interviewed by Detectives, they were presented with a photo of a registered a registered sex offender in the neighborhood, and they all identified this person instead of Mr. J. When that person had an alibi, they checked various vehicle descriptions and located Mr. J through his vehicle. The Detectives indicated that Mr. J confessed to all the crimes when interviewed by them. He was subsequently arrested and charged with Public Sexual Indecency under Arizona Revised Statute ARS 13-1403(A)(1).
At Trial, we argued that the offense the girls were describing was Indecent Exposure and not Public Sexual Indecency, (since there was no actual sex act involved). In addition, we pointed out that they had identified somebody completely different than Mr. J. when shown the original photo lineup. Lastly, we argued that this so called confession by the Detectives was never recorded, as would be standard procedure, and therefore was very suspect. The Jury agreed and Mr. J was found Not Guilty of the charge.