Chicago Criminal Lawyer Blog
Interviewer: I hear these days that police officers are going undercover and doing things to apprehend sex offenders. Is that something that you’ve seen?
Fred Dry: I had at least one client accused of prostitution who was a student of the law and she knew about the Illinois eavesdropping law which has been recently found unconstitutional but because of that eavesdropping law, she couldn’t record the audio portion of her sessions, so she would record her video portions of her sessions. She got arrested in a sting one time when the police came in and posed as a customer and her case ended up being dismissed because she had video of the police officers engaging in inappropriate behavior. So, there are ways to combat this but once again, if you’re a prostitute, you’re engaging in illegal behavior, so there’s a fine line between protecting yourself and committing further crimes.
The Police Can Apprehend Sex Offenders By Regularly Scouring the Newspapers and the Internet Searching for Potential Prostitutes
Interviewer: What do police officers do when they come to scene like this? Do they usually seek out people from the internet or do they wait for someone to email them?
Fred Dry: The police regularly read the local papers where they, in the past, have seen prostitutes advertising; same thing for the internet. They’ll look for people advertising as escorts and somehow correspond with them, whether it’s by email or by telephone, texting. It is a fairly common method used to apprehend sex offenders. There’s only two basic things that need to be proven in a prostitution case or a solicitation for a prostitution case is, was some reward offered in exchange for a sexual act.
People May Use Slang Terms for Describing the Sexual Act when Talking to Prostitutes
Sometimes, people don’t describe the sexual act in the way that is a recognizable way, and that is to say they used some slang and it becomes an element of proof to the court whether or not what was agreed upon was a sexual act, so they might have indeed been agreeing upon a sexual act but it can’t be proven because of the language that was used. For instance, they were talking about the sexual act and they used the word grapefruit, okay, you see what I’m seeing. It becomes a question of is this really an agreement to pay for a sexual act?
The Legal Age of Consent in the State of Illinois is 17 Years
Interviewer: What is the age of consent and have you dealt with clients that have very clear situation, it would be considered a statutory breach?
Fred Dry: The agent of consent is 17. Usually, statutory rape cases are brought because of the assistance of one of the people’s parents. We tend to think of these cases where the male is always the one being accused but it doesn’t have to be that way. I think we’ve seen in news relatively frequently, that we’re seeing more female, high school teachers having sex with their male students. That could be statutory rape because the male is old enough to engage in the act but not old enough to be able to give lawful consent.
The Penalties Associated With a Statutory Rape Charge in Illinois
Interviewer: What are some of the penalties that someone could be facing for a statutory rape charge?
Fred Dry: Well, typically, as a felony, you’re going to have a possible penitentiary sentence, which would mean a year or more in jail, 365 days or more in jail would be a penitentiary sentences in Illinois. Large fines, thousands of dollars in fines.