Utah Juveniles - Rich King Attorney at Law

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Juveniles

What if a police officer wants to question my child?

Police officers often tell you that they are not investigating you, but are investigating someone else, when in fact you may be the suspect (or you may become a suspect). A police officer may start the interview asking about someone else, then slip in some questions about you and your conduct. Even if you are not a suspect, you risk a great deal by answering questions, because any answer that is not completely accurate, or that is inconsistent with other answers you give, can result in a charge of obstruction of justice, aiding and abetting another in committing a crime, or with being an accessory after the fact. In short, your attempt to help a police officer can, and often does, land you in jail.

This method of police interrogation is especially effective with juveniles, because children are taught that the police are there to protect them. Police officers abuse this special relationship of trust because a child doesn’t know that the law enforcement has taken the position that the police can lie and deceive a suspect to get the suspect to answer questions. And the police do often lie and deceive juveniles during investigations.

For example, in one recent Utah case, a police officer pulled a 16 year old boy from his high school class, and told him not to worry because the boy was not in trouble. The officer told the boy that he was there to ask questions about another boy, who was in juvenile detention, for allegedly raping a girl. After deceiving the boy into waiving an offer to have his parents or a school counselor present, the officer questioned the boy about his friend until the boy was at ease. The officer then asked the boy “when did you have sex” with the girl. Unfortunately for the boy, he had lost his virginity to the girl in one brief encounter two years before the police interrogation. Even though the girl had been sexually active since she was 12, she was just under the age of 14, and the boy was just over the age of 14, when the unfortunate lad fell victim to this female sexual predator. Unknown to the boy, the police officer was secretly recording the interview. As a result, the boy was charged with First Degree Felony Rape of a Child, because Utah law states that a person under the age of 14 cannot consent to consensual sex. The moral of the story is clear: teach your children to refuse to speak with police officers or other investigators until a parent is present.

The Absurd Result Doctrine

In State ex rel. Z.C., 2007 UT 54 (July 17, 2007), the State of Utah filed a delinquency petition in Juvenile Court charging a 13-year-old girl with child sex abuse after she had consensual sex with a 12-year-old. The girl filed a motion to dismiss the case, arguing that because she was under the age of 14 years, Utah’s child sex abuse statute made her both a victim and a perpetrator, which is an absurd result. After her motion to dismiss was denied, she appealed to the Utah Court of Appeals, which affirmed the conviction. The girl then appealed to the Utah Supreme Court, which reversed the conviction, holding that the Utah Legislature could not possibly have intended to treat the 13 year old girl both as a victim and a perpetrator of child sex abuse for the same act. The Utah Supreme Court explained that a court should not apply the literal language of a statute if its plain meaning requires an absurd result. In order to fall under the “absurd result doctrine,” the result must be so absurd that the legislative body that enacted the statute could not have intended the result.

It took years to proceed from the Juvenile Court to the Utah Court of Appeals to the Utah Supreme Court, before the Utah Supreme Court finally held that the case was absurd under the "absurd result doctrine" (the Utah Supreme Court tactfully refrained from stating that the Prosecutor, the Juvenile Court, and the Court of Appeals had applied the law in an absurd way).

Call 435.789.5433 to retain an Experienced and Aggressive Criminal Defense Attorney.