Sex Crimes

October 5, 2022

CPD Officer Facing Sexual Assault Charges for Incident with Transgender Citizen

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

A federal grand jury has indicted a Chicago police officer on charges of illegally detaining a trans woman and forcing her to perform sexual services against the threat of going to jail. The officer was a 29-year veteran with the force when he resigned in 2019. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He also faced a civil complaint filed by the victim. The complaint was settled in 2020, but little is known about the details of the settlement.

The same officer was accused in another complaint of sexual misconduct after demanding that a woman he had just pulled over follow him to an alley, where he proceeded to masturbate. That lawsuit was settled in 2019. Now, the officer is facing criminal charges related to sexual misconduct under the color of law. As of 2019, the officer had faced 44 complaints. The officer has been charged with deprivation of rights under color of law, a federal crime that carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. Since the allegations include sexual abuse, kidnapping, wrongful imprisonment, extortion, and whatever else, prosecutors will be looking to place the officer behind bars for as long as they possibly can.

Analyzing the charges

September 14, 2022

Man Sentenced to 10 Years for Enticement of Minor

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

A 33-year-old Chicago man has been charged with enticement and coercion after blackmailing a Massachusetts teen into sending him pornographic images of herself. By the time he was caught, the man had collected hundreds of images of the teen under the threat of exposing her videos to the public. However, it was the teen who reported the conduct to law enforcement, thus resulting in the perpetrator’s arrest.

The perpetrator has since pleaded guilty to the crime and faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in federal prison.

Understanding the Allegations

August 31, 2022

Former High School Dean Charged With Sexual Assault of Student

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

A former high school dean is facing disturbing charges that he had a sexual relationship with a former student while she was between the ages of 15 and 17. At one point, the dean posed as her stepfather and signed consent papers to have two abortions. The relationship is alleged to have begun in 2013 when the girl was 15. The former dean is accused of contacting the student over Snapchat and then initiating a sexual relationship that lasted for two years. The dean was terminated by the district in 2021 according to the current principal who sent a notice to parents.

The relationship did not come to light until 2021 when the former student filed a police report after the principal attempted to contact her. The victim reported the incident to a teacher in 2015, but the teacher never reported the matter to the police, which why it took six years for charges to be filed against the former dean.

The dean has been charged with criminal sexual assault after police obtained Snapchat messages and the medical consent forms for the two abortions.

August 24, 2022

Man Claims Parents Allowed Sexual Contact with Teen; Court Does Not Care

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

A Chicago man is fighting charges in Iowa after he allegedly had sexual contact with a 15-year-old girl. The man claimed that the parents permitted the sexual contact between him and their daughter and thus should not be charged with a crime. However, consent is not a factor in statutory rape cases, and a parent cannot consent on behalf of a child to permit a crime to be committed against them. A judge informed the defendant of this fact and refused to dismiss charges against him related to unlawful sexual contact.

Age of Consent: How Does it Work?

The vast majority of states do not have a single age of consent but rather age differentials that are considered unlawful. Iowa has an age of consent of 16 which means that anyone over the age of 16 can consent to sex. This girl was 15. However, Iowa’s minimum age is 14 which means that an individual who is 14 years of age or older can consent to have sex with anyone who is within four years of their age. In this case, the defendant was 27 at the time of the alleged unlawful sexual contact, so the statute would not apply to him and the charges would still be actionable.

August 19, 2022

FBI Announces Major Sex Trafficking Sting

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

The FBI announced an operation to break up a major human trafficking ring. The bust resulted in the liberation of 84 minors, 37 of whom were actively missing children. The average age of the minors was 15 years old, but there were some as young as 11. 141 adults were also among those liberated by police. Authorities have identified 85 suspects accused of involvement in human sex trafficking.

The operation included more than 200 local police departments across the country, FBI specialists including intelligence analysts and forensic interviewers. The partnership included National Center for Missing or Exploited Children (NCMEC). 391 operations were conducted over the course of a two-week period.

More than half of human trafficking victims are minors. More than half of all human trafficking victims were approached on social media sites, dating sites, and online.

August 17, 2022

Serial Scooter Groper Charged with Sexual Assault

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

Two victims and a coworker have positively identified a man that they say groped them without their consent while riding by on a motorized scooter. The man now faces multiple accounts of aggravated battery, aggravated criminal sexual abuse, and criminal sexual assault. An image of the man had been circulated since August 6. The man was linked to four separate groping incidents, three of which occurred on August 4. The man allegedly groped the buttocks or genitals of women on the street before fleeing the scene. In at least one case, a victim said that there was sexual penetration. The case broke when an image of the man was distributed to the public. A former coworker was the one to identify the suspect.

The suspect has since admitted to groping the women because they were all “wearing something hot.”

Why Did He Think This Was Okay Behavior?

August 5, 2022

School Teacher Gets 50 Years for Sexual Exploitation of a Minor

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

Allegations against this teacher were reported as early as 2019 when he still worked in the Chicago public schools. The teacher was accused of inappropriately touching the buttocks of a female student who then reported the incident to her mother and the two went to the principal. The behavior occurred on more than one occasion. The girl’s brother reported similar conduct as did two of his classmates.

Prosecutors did pursue misdemeanor charges against the teacher who was later found not guilty in a bench trial. The teacher continued to teach Spanish to third graders when he was arrested for the sexual exploitation of a 12-year-old in Indiana.

According to the allegations, he arranged to meet a 12-year-old boy who he spoke to online and met the boy at a hotel where he molested the boy and recorded the encounter. After the incident, police recovered the teacher’s phone where they found another incident of inappropriate sexual contact with a minor. The other victim was an Illinois resident who was 15 at the time of the assault.

July 22, 2022

Man Indicted on Child Pornography Charges Used Kik Messenger App

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

An Illinois man who was a registered sex offender was indicted on new child pornography charges after exchanging photos with an undercover agent on the Kik Messenger App. Kik has gained notoriety for being a den of child pornography enthusiasts exchanging photos. The app provides the user with total anonymity from other users, but the terms of service stipulate that individuals cannot exchange illegal material using the site’s infrastructure.

The app itself is not nefarious. It was created by college students at the University of Waterloo as a free, anonymous messaging app. The app allows you to create group chats, upload videos, pictures, and files. The group chat feature is where most of the child pornography issues can be found. The only thing you need to use the app is an email address. You then have a username and a handle which is used by other members to find you.

While uploading child pornography to the site violates its terms of service, Kik does not moderate these group chats, so it is left to law enforcement to ensure crimes are not being committed.

July 20, 2022

Can Parents Consent to Sexual Contact on Behalf of Their Children?

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

An Illinois man is alleging that the parents of a child he is charged with sexually assaulting gave him consent to initiate the sexual contact. The man has been charged with the sexual abuse of a 15-year-old girl. He believes that he has committed no crime because her parents consented to the sexual contact. The Chicago man has been extradited to Iowa where he will face the charges. The defense filed a motion to dismiss on the basis of this consent, but consent is not a defense to the sexual abuse of a child. What is a defense is not knowing that the child was under 17 at the time of the assault.

Understanding the Law

I cannot agree on your behalf to allow you to be murdered, even if I am your parent. Children are not property and are not considered as such under the law. While parents have decision-making power over their children, they cannot consent on their behalf to allow the child to become the victim of a crime. The argument is thus meritless in legal terms and would rely entirely on jury nullification of the law under the statute. Lawyers are generally prevented from making such arguments before a jury. Nonetheless, the juries can and do nullify the law in specific cases. Most notably, during prohibition, prosecutors found it difficult to convict individuals accused of bootlegging. There is no jury on earth that would nullify a sex crime against a child. It would be tantamount to arguing that parents are allowed to pimp their children out to pedophiles for money.

July 15, 2022

Governor Closes Loophole in Sexual Assault Law

by Law Offices of David L. Freidberg, P.C.

Governor Pritzker recently signed a revision to an Illinois law that made it difficult for prosecutors to pursue charges against perpetrators of sex crimes against a victim who was voluntarily intoxicated. The bill will close a loophole under the law that made prosecutions more difficult when a victim was intoxicated by their own volition. The law as it was written required the perpetrator to cause the intoxication of the victim. The bill added new language to the statute that makes it easier for prosecutors to file charges against a perpetrator when the victim was drunk or high at the time. Nonetheless, the new law only makes room for victims who are unable to give consent at the time of the sexual contact. If the victim was “unconscious of the nature of the act” and the perpetrator “knew that they could not consent” then the sexual conduct is now actionable.

What Happened?

The legislature took the matter up after a young victim was told by police that her experience did not qualify as rape or sexual assault under Illinois law. According to the victim, she was at a friend’s house partying when she was sexually assaulted by another individual. The police told her they would not investigate the charges because she had voluntarily become drunk when she was raped. When she asked the police what legal options she had at her disposal, they told her to not let it happen again and to move on. Instead, she lobbied politicians to close the loophole in the law and now police will be forced to investigate these matters.