New York Criminal Lawyer Blog
Every New York sex crimes lawyer has been able to handle a wide variety of cases that deal with sexual abuse of minors and other similar scenarios. With the modern world of today becoming filled with so much of the online community, it is also common to find cases where minors are sexually abused through online chatting. This is the exact case that happened to a professional attorney who was arrested for sex chatting with a 13-year-old and even meeting up with her in person to have actual physical sexual encounter.
There were two witnesses who emerged. The first witness testified that he knew the accused attorney to be a very dignified professional. In fact, Steven J. Lever, the attorney accused, is waiting for a job offer from the firm of the first witness. The second witness is a close family friend and testified too that Lever is a very honest person aside from being smart. The first hearing led for the suspension of the attorney for six months since the court was not convinced that he really had sexual contact with the minor involved.
But as per the view of an expert New York Criminal Lawyer, the sentence for the accused should be greater than that. Anything that abuses the rights of minors should definitely pay for all the consequences that come with such actions. Another credible lawyer believes that the abuse of Internet to take advantage of minors for sex, or endangering the welfare of a child, a grave misconduct, especially for another professional who should be smarter than the average person in the society. It is just right to not let any attorneys like Lever to still practice law with such an immoral background.
The court who handled the first hearing justified that such a light sanction was given since the accused was highly cooperative during the legal process of the case. He had no background on any disciplinary action and it was assumed that external factors of being stressed due to the recent passing of his mother could have been the thing that triggered him to entertain himself for a while through online chatting. Even the therapist who handled him said that there is a low chance of him doing the same offense again.
A Staten Island Criminal Lawyer said there is another case that shared almost the same details with this one. But the only difference is that in the other case, the actual sexual contact was proven. But with Lever’s case, there were no solid evidences presented. The alternative recommended sanction had a chance though to be given to the accused for as long as three years and he would be continuously go through evaluation with an expert psychiatrist. The biggest lesson learned about this is that no professional attorney should have the right to still practice their profession in the court if guilty of committing such an immoral crime.
No sex crime should ever get away from going through the right legal process. If you or any of your loved ones happen to get involved in such especially in the city of New York, do not hesitate to contact Stephen Bilkis & Associates. Sex crimes can be stopped in our society if we would all work together to crush it completely so that no human right will ever be devalued.