Mr. C had 4 children by way of his wife. He and his wife had put a camera inside of his daughters’ room for safety monitoring, and had informed their daughter of this. Mr. C and his wife also lived the “swinger” lifestyle. As they were getting ready to go through a divorce, ms. C filed a police report claiming that mr. C had sexual conduct with his daughter, had videotaped her masturbating, and had expressed an interest in having an incestuous relationship with her. The police conducted a “confrontation call”, in which they attempted to have mr. C make admissions. He did not make any admissions. However, he was arrested and charged with 2 counts of child molestation/ a dangerous crimes against children (DCAC), 2 counts of sexual abuse (DCAC) and 1 count of voyeurism pursuant to Arizona Revised Statute ARS 13-1424. He was then taken into custody and held “non bondable” while his case progressed.
We were retained to represent him on the criminal charges and began our investigation. The daughters’ story did not match up regarding some of her facts, plus she was biased in favor or her mother due to the pending divorce. Because she knew off the existence of the camera in her room, the prosecutor was going to have a difficult time proving some of the elements of voyeurism. The major hurdle in the case was a video recording of his daughter masturbating which was found on mr. C’s personal computer. We were ultimately able to have the case reduced to probation with 6 months in jail (credit for the time he already served and no sex offender registration). Mr. C was released from custody immediately after sentencing. He originally was facing the rest of his life in prison if he would have been convicted of these charges.