...what actually happened. Denying it to your lawyer doesn't help your case, and admitting it doesn't help. All they care about is going through the evidence the prosecution has against you (they are required to give it to you in advance) and systematically finding ways to cast doubt on each part of it. Helpful information to them would be a motive for her to make it up, or for the boy to make it up; evidence against their credibility like a psych report diagnosing the kid with mental or behavior disorders; witness names of people who maybe saw the kid angrily defying the guy when he'd try to discipline him, screaming "you're not my dad, I wish you'd die" etc (a possible motive for the kid to make up the accusations). Then he should hopefully be able to go through the police reports, detective and social worker statements and evidence presented in the arrest warrant, which should be quickly available to him and his lawyer after arrest, and hopefully give his lawyer information and evidence to cast doubt on those. This is all before any trial. His lawyer wants to be able to whisper in the ear of the prosecutor that none of that evidence will hold up, we already know witnesses who were there to confirm his statement about X couldn't have happened, etc. That will hopefully convince them to drop some or all of the charges. Or change them altogether to something non-sexual, like simple battery. The point is, his lawyer doesn't need to know the truth of what happened or didn't. The best thing is to help him as much as possible to shoot down the evidence from the prosecution. Focus on that, and especially if it's a public defender who doesn't have much time, your friend needs to do as much legwork as possible himself to gather evidence and information for his lawyer to use to shoot holes in everything (witness names and phone numbers, receipts, timesheets from work showing he wasn't at home at the time, etc). And even if he did it, and has no alibi or evidence to counter their claims, his lawyer can still use the possible motives for the mother or boy to lie, and hopefully if all they have is the boy's vague accusations, they may be convinced to drop everything. Tell him not to give up hope if he gets arrested -- it's not at all over yet. Icarus |