Prostitution Defense Lawyer St. Paul John Lesch
When it comes to prostitution charges in Minnesota, there are serious consequences for those convicted. Yet, it stands to be said that those serious consequences come for a rather vaguely defined area of the law. In fact, often what separates the guilty from the innocent in prostitution charges is just a few words uttered during the event. If those words were left unsaid, no arrest may have been made.
It can occasionally be difficult to evade prostitution charges because of the vague nature of the crime and the fact that the law for criminal sexual misconduct is ever evolving. However, if you are facing down a prostitution conviction in St. Paul, you and your lawyer should discuss employing any of these three defense strategies if valid to your case to help escape the punishments.
The Entrapment Defense
If your arrest was made during a prostitution sting led by law enforcement, then a defense strategy based around entrapment will likely be the first defense that your lawyer will want to look into. Entrapment is used to describe coercion by law enforcement that makes person commit a crime that they might not otherwise have committed. An example might be a law enforcement officer posing as a prostitute who effectively pesters and persuades you into agreeing to sex in exchange for money. This is not legal and is considered entrapment. However, if you approached them and brought up the subject, then that makes the following arrest valid.
Unfortunately, entrapment is difficult to prove as it is often not so clear-cut as the example above. The key to entrapment is that you must prove that you would have never committed the crime if not for the undercover officer’s involvement. The prosecution needs to prove that your action was planned while your lawyer needs to prove that it was otherwise coerced.
Violation of Due Process Defense
In prostitution, another solid defense is that due process was violated somewhere within the arrest. This can make it so the arrest is invalid and completely thrown out, so they cannot pursue a case against you. As sting operations for prostitution can be so complicated, your lawyer will need to go over every little detail surrounding your arrest to discover if due process was followed or not. For example, it matters if sexual contact was initiated before the arrest under Minnesota Statute 609.322. If the officer allowed sexual contact in order to gather evidence, and then arrested the perpetrator, this is considered a violation of due process. There have been several cases in Minnesota prostitution dismissed for this very action.
Probable Cause Defense
This is similar to a breach in due process as not having probable cause means that there was no reason for an arrest. In order for probable cause to be present in prostitution cases, there needs to be a clear agreement made for sex in exchange for money. If an undercover officer enters your vehicle and you state that you want to go somewhere and do something fun, and they arrest you, it is an arrest without probable cause. For all they know, you wanted to go play basketball somewhere, not engage in sex.
Seeking Legal Help
All of these defenses are complicated, but every prostitution charge is unique and your legal rights may have been breached at some point. This is why if you are arrested for prostitution, it is crucial that you go over the facts with a lawyer. In these cases, it is often the small details that make the biggest difference. If you have been arrested for prostitution in the St. Paul area and need legal representation, contact us today to see what Lesch Law can do for you.