Chicago Criminal Lawyer Blog
Fight Prostitution Charges With Fred Mark Dry
Interviewer: What is the most common sex crime that you see that you worked with?
Fred Dry: Prostitution. That’s probably the most common ones, even today. However, no registration as a sex offender is required as long as the victim is not a juvenile.
Interviewer: Are you working more with the person that’s been accused of soliciting or prostituting?
Fred Dry: Yes. I have worked with both the customers and the providers. But that’s, because of the fact that that’s typically a misdemeanor, it tends to be the most common in my practice. Probably, because there are so many more cases of Prostitution or Solicitation than those more serious cases requiring Sex Offender Registration, such as Child Pornography, Aggravated Child Pornography, Indecent Solicitation of a Child, Sexual Exploitation of a Child, Custodial Sexual Misconduct, Sexual Misconduct with a person with a Disability, Promoting Juvenile Prostitution, Soliciting For a Juvenile Prostitute, Patronizing a Juvenile Prostitute, Keeping a Place of Juvenile Prostitution, Juvenile Pimping, Exploitation of a Child, Grooming, Traveling to Meet a Minor, Criminal Sexual Assault, Aggravated Criminal Sexual Assault,, Ritualized Abuse of A Child (730 ILCS 150/2.
In A Solicitation Case, the Major Factor to Consider is If the Defendant Offered a Financial Benefit in Exchange for Sex
Interviewer: If someone’s being accused of a solicitation, how difficult would that be as far as proving that case goes, I mean proving that person’s innocence?
Fred Dry: All criminal cases are very fact driven, very specific fact driven. That is to say you can have a case that’s 99 per cent alike with another case but that 1 per cent can be the difference between guilty and not guilty. What they have to prove in a solicitation case, that is to say a case against the potential customer, is that they offered some financial or other reward in exchange for sex? If a person solicited the price per sex from a sex worker, that’s not the same as saying “I will pay you”. The difference between “How much do you charge” and “I will pay you” is large. One is not a crime, the other one is.
It is Beneficial for the Client To Accurately Relate the Details of the Case to the Defense Attorney
Interviewer: What are the things that you can do for a client to help the client to prepare? What are some things that you’re going to ask them to bring or you’re going to ask the client to do to cooperate with this kind of cases?
Fred Dry: When I work for the client, any client, regardless of what the crime is, I want to know exactly what happened without any fabrication, without any distortion of reality because in a way, it’s like a patient working with the doctor. If you say “My pain is on the left side”, the doctor makes one diagnosis and if you say “The pain is on the right side”, they’ll make a different diagnosis. If I get the whole story accurately and truthfully, that’s the best possible starting place.
Being a Defendant Means that the Government Has to Prove the Case Against You Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
A defendant has the advantage that they don’t have to prove anything. Being a defendant means that the government has to prove the case against you beyond the reasonable doubt without your cooperation in any way, shape or form. And a defendant only has to put on that evidence which will either fully explain the facts away or to put on evidence that will cause the facts that the government has proven to be doubted, or any kind of an element which will make a judge or a jury believe that there’s reasonable doubt. So, the first and most important thing is getting the whole story straight from your client and after that is seeing if there are other witnesses to be contacted and talked to about what transpired, and that’s how you make your case, that’s how you build your case.
Solicitation Of Prostitution Is Not Considered A Sex Crime Per Se In Illinois
Interviewer: What about soliciting prostitution? Is that considered as sex crime as well?
Fred Dry: Not under the law. Soliciting a prostitute, unless it is a juvenile prostitute, will not require you to register as a sex offender. But of course, if your neighbors find out that you’ve been engaged in this behavior, I suspect it’s subject to the same type of opprobrium that would befall a lot of people who have committed other types of offenses because most people would see that as the sex crime. Even though you would not legally be required to register, I think most people would see it as a sex crime.
The Penalties for Promoting Prostitution are Higher than the Penalties for Soliciting Prostitutes
Interviewer: I’ve heard that the penalties for actually promoting prostitution are higher than actually soliciting or be actually engaged in help prostitution?
Fred Dry: I think of that so because society in general and the legislature by reflection have decided that it’s one thing if a person pushes themselves into this type of life. It’s something else if a third person does it for their own personal gain. And so, if you’re the madam or you’re the pimp, you’re looked at as being more culpable because you’re not debasing yourself, you’re encouraging other people do so for your own profit. So, it’s seen as a higher level of criminality.
The Process of Registering as a Sex Offender in the State of Illinois
Interviewer: What is the process like if someone has to register to be a sex offender? What does that mean?
Fred Dry: You have to go to the local police department, wherever it is that you live, in the neighborhood police station or whatever is the closest police station to where you’re intending to live, or where you are living and it has to be done within a certain short period of time upon taking up residence. You have to go and register and put your name on the list and give them where it is that you’re living. And the interesting thing about that is you’re compelled to do that. If you don’t do it, that in itself is a crime. And you have to give the information about where it is that you’re going to be living in that area.
Residing Within 1000 Feet of a Prohibited Area Can Result in Prosecution for a Registered Sex Offender
It better not be within that 1,000 feet of a school or of the park or any other prohibited area because if it is within there, you’re probably going to end up being prosecuted for and then, you’ve already made an admission by putting that information in sex offender log. So, there’s a lot of pitfalls and you’ll have to register; anytime you move, you have to register. If you’re going to be away for more than a couple of days, you know, just going on a vacation or something, you have to be going to a place where you’re permitted to be and you have to let the authorities know that you’re not going to be where you’ve registered to be and that’s why you have to register. Sometimes, the registration is for period of years, another time it’s life time. It depends upon the individual’s particular and individual life circumstances.