Criminal Defense Attorney Domenic Lombardo Discusses Sex Crime Charges
It’s exceptionally rare that a criminal defendant can sit down face-to-face with a detective and exonerate themselves. In fact, I’ve never heard of it occurring. Don’t think that you can control the situation by meeting with law enforcement, interviewing with them, sitting down for a polygraph examination or somehow exonerating yourself with your own words. Law enforcement seeks to extract information out of your mouth that will corroborate the claim made by the complaining witness. They’re not after exoneration, they’re not after information from you that will point unerringly to your innocence. In fact, quite the opposite is true. They’re looking for information that’s going to be used against you in court. Law enforcement will build the case against you.
What you should do is put yourself in the hands of an attorney with extensive experience in these types of matters. The attorney will be concerned with assessing your situation to find out what needs to be done right now to get you the best possible result. Under the broad topic of sex crimes, the attorney would be initially concerned with what type of forensic work might be necessary in this case such as DNA or analysis of biological fluids, hair samples, that sort of thing, if it’s relevant to your case. An experienced attorney will conduct independent forensic work. You’d be surprised to learn that the forensic lab within the police department is not seeking the document and preserve evidence that would be exonerating to you. So, as a criminal defense lawyer, I marshal my own experts, my own investigator to unearth that information, find it where it exists, and then seek to use it to your advantage.
Sex crimes, again, are considerably complicated. Their dynamic, this situation is evolving and frequently changing, and therefore neither law enforcement nor the District Attorney’s Office really has a very clear picture as to what they think has occurred, and therefore it’s my job to clarify the information for them. Remember that the prosecutor only gets one side of the story. The prosecutor is evaluating their case against you from the standpoint of the information, the character quality of the information presented to them by law enforcement. Not only are we looking at the prosecution’s case and finding and identifying those failures or deficiencies, we’re trying to marshal our resources to develop the truth of the situation.
A free and confidential consultation with Mr. Lombardo is available upon request at (619) 232-5122.
Sex Crime Cases in California
Sex crime cases in San Diego County and throughout California, ranging from rape to child molestation, are aggressively defended by San Diego sex crimes attorney Domenic Lombardo. At the Law Office of Domenic J. Lombardo, we have a complete understanding of the law enforcement and judicial systems surrounding sex crime cases and, just as important, many years of experience working within these processes.
We utilize a combination of our own forensic tools and laboratories and critical analysis of all the evidence recovered to bring to light the alternative explanation. For it is this alternative, which must be based on reason and evidence, yet lies beyond the prosecutor’s interpretation, that can best help a defendant. If an alternative explanation, held together by evidence and by reason, is available, the jury is legally obligated to adopt it instead of the prosecutor’s interpretation, and find the defendant not guilty. Getting your case to this outcome is the legal service we provide at the San Diego Law Office of Domenic J. Lombardo.
The steps needed to reach an alternative to the prosecutor’s interpretation are generally as follows.
Evidence Collection
In sex crime cases, and in cases of rape especially, law enforcement often fails to conduct a comprehensive examination of the crime scene and collection of evidence. The police typically will only do as much work as they need to confirm a suspect. Unfortunately, the hard work of gathering evidence is often left to us, sex crimes attorneys with teams of forensic investigators. We complete an examination of the evidence in order to prove wrongdoing by another person, not the defendant.
There are many tools used by law enforcement which are also available to a criminal defense attorney and may exonerate an individual accused of sexual assault. At the Law Office of Domenic J. Lombardo, we utilize forensic investigators in many cases to pick up where the police left off. Our office works with several different forensic laboratories to test and retest evidence in sexual assault cases.
Working with Forensic Specialists
The following are examples of how forensic specialists can assist us in obtaining undiscovered trace evidence and evaluating evidence already found:
- Inspect the scene
- Use ultraviolet lights, adhesive lifts, scrapings, alternate light source, and combing
- Conduct DNA recovery and analysis
- Recover saliva and semen
- Photography
In sexual assault cases, the careful collection and preservation of evidence can be especially useful for demonstrating consent, the presence of a third party who may be responsible for the assault, or to show that the complaining witness is actually protecting a third party.
In all cases, the defense lawyer must critically examine evidence recovered by law enforcement and subject that evidence to careful inspection to determine what they missed. We review the results of all crime lab tests and, in some instances, call to have evidence retested.
Going to Trial
Armed with the details gathered by law enforcement and evidence found from our own investigation, we strive to present to the jury the best alternative to the prosecution’s case. For them, the integrity of the forensic investigation in serious sex crime trials will literally make or break the prosecution’s case. In other words, does the prosecution’s evidence tell a clear and compelling story without any room for an alternative explanation, or has the defense provided an alternative explanation of the evidence that is based in reason?
In cases that offer two interpretations of the evidence, where both explanations are based in reason, the jury is legally obligated to adopt the interpretation favorable to the defense, reject the interpretation favored by the prosecutor, and find the defendant not guilty. In sex crime cases, the alternative explanation leading to a not guilty verdict must be brought to light through a careful, methodical and thorough forensic investigation. That is what we strive to accomplish for all sex crime cases brought to our law office.
More About Sex Crimes in California
For more information about sex offenses in California, the following related resources are available:
- What to Do If You Are Accused of Rape
- Can I Be Prosecuted for Rape in California If It Happened Years Ago?
- Sexual Offender vs. Sexual Predator in California
Get Help from an Experienced San Diego Sex Crimes Attorney
For immediate legal help, contact Domenic J. Lombardo, an experienced San Diego sex crimes defense attorney. Do not hesitate to call Mr. Lombardo for a free and confidential consultation if you are facing allegations of a sex crime or sex crime charges in San Diego, Chula Vista, Coronado, Point Loma, Ocean Beach, Pacific Beach, La Jolla, University City, Kearney Mesa, North Park, Hillcrest, National City, Imperial Beach, San Ysidro, Lemon Grove, El Cajon, La Mesa, Spring Valley, La Presa, Lakeside, Santee, Poway, Escondido, San Marcos, Rancho Santa Fe, Encinitas, Del Mar, Solana Beach, Carlsbad, Oceanside, Vista, Fallbrook and throughout San Diego County and the state of California.