Sex Crime Defense
Sex Crime Defense Attorney Redding: Investigation, Charges and Registration
Jacob Levin Law is a sex crime defense attorney Redding residents can call at the investigation stage or after charges are filed. These cases often rest on a single account, and on what a careful defense investigation finds around it. The consequences can include state prison and sex offender registration under Penal Code section 290.
Attorney at Law
The First Advice a Sex Crime Defense Attorney Redding Residents Call Will Hear
Do not talk to the detective. Many sex offense investigations begin with a phone call inviting you to come in and give your side. That invitation is part of the investigation, and anything you say can be used to build the case. Say you want a lawyer, and then stop talking.
People who are innocent are the ones most tempted to explain. They assume that once the detective hears the truth, the matter will end. The problem is not honesty. An interview is designed to gather evidence, a frightened person’s account rarely comes out in perfect order, and a small inconsistency in time or sequence can later be presented as a lie.
Jacob Levin’s advice, from his own writing on the subject, is to say calmly: “I am respectfully exercising my right to remain silent. I would like to speak with an attorney, please.” Then stop discussing the facts. The reasoning is laid out in the first step after an arrest or charge and the most dangerous words in criminal defense.
Do not contact the person who made the accusation, and do not ask anyone else to. Do not delete messages, photographs, or accounts. Deletion is discoverable, and the material people are tempted to remove is frequently the material that helps them.
[CLIENT CONFIRM: Whether Jacob Levin will contact a detective on behalf of someone who has not been charged, and whether the practice handles registration termination petitions under Penal Code section 290.5. Both are described here only as general information until confirmed.]What Is a Pretext Call, and Is It Legal in California?
A pretext call is a phone call or message from the accuser, placed at a detective’s direction and recorded, meant to draw out an apology or an admission. California generally requires the consent of all parties to record a confidential conversation, but Penal Code section 633 exempts law enforcement and people acting at their direction.
Penal Code section 632 makes it a crime to record a confidential communication without the consent of all parties. Section 633 says that rule does not prohibit listed law enforcement officers, or any person acting at their direction within the scope of their authority, from recording a communication they could lawfully have recorded before January 1, 1968, and it does not make that evidence inadmissible. The call you receive can be recorded without your knowledge and offered in court.
Pretext calls work because they sound ordinary. The caller is someone you know. The conversation may start with something unrelated, and then it turns to the allegation and to a request for an explanation or an apology. An apology offered to keep the peace, or to end an uncomfortable conversation, can read very differently in a transcript. If the accuser calls or writes about the allegation, do not discuss it. End the conversation and call a lawyer.
What Do Penal Code Sections 261, 288, 647.6 and 314 Cover?
They range from misdemeanors to some of the most serious felonies in California law, and each has its own elements, its own defenses, and its own registration consequence. The charge on the complaint is where the analysis starts, not where it ends.
Section 261: Rape
Sexual intercourse accomplished under circumstances the statute lists, including force, violence, duress, menace, or fear; a person prevented from resisting by an intoxicating substance, where that was known or should have been known; and a person unconscious of the nature of the act, including someone asleep. Section 264 sets the term at three, six, or eight years in state prison, and higher when the complaining witness is a minor.
Section 288: Lewd act on a child
A lewd act on a child under 14, with sexual intent, is a felony carrying three, six, or eight years. Force or duress raises that to 5, 8, or 10 years. Where the child is 14 or 15 and the accused is at least 10 years older, the statute allows one to three years in state prison or up to one year in county jail.
Section 647.6: Annoying or molesting a child
Annoying or molesting a child under 18, punishable by up to one year in county jail, a fine of up to $5,000, or both. It also reaches conduct toward an adult the accused believed to be a child, such as an adult posing as a minor. A second conviction is a state prison offense.
Section 314: Indecent exposure
Willful and lewd exposure in a public place, or anywhere other people are present to be offended or annoyed. A first offense is a misdemeanor. It becomes a felony after entering an inhabited dwelling without consent, on a second conviction, or after a prior conviction under section 288.
Section 288.3: Contacting a minor
Contacting or communicating with a minor, when the accused knows or reasonably should know the person is a minor, with intent to commit one of the listed sex offenses. The communication can be by any electronic means, and it is punished as an attempt of the intended offense.
Section 290: Registration
Every offense above is on the registration list in section 290, including a misdemeanor under section 647.6 or subdivision 1 of section 314.
How Does Sex Offender Registration Work Under Penal Code 290?
Since January 1, 2021, California registration has three tiers, created by Senate Bill 384 in 2017. Tier one requires registration for at least 10 years, tier two for at least 20 years, and tier three for life. The tier depends mainly on the offense of conviction, which is why the final charge matters as much as the original one.
Tier one covers registrable misdemeanors, and registrable felonies that are not serious or violent felonies. A first misdemeanor conviction under section 647.6 or section 314 falls here. Tier two covers registrable offenses that are also serious or violent felonies, which includes a lewd act on a child under 14 under section 288(a), along with a second, separately tried conviction under section 647.6. Tier three, lifetime registration, includes rape under section 261(a)(2), (3), or (4), convictions under section 288(b) or (c), most violations of section 288.3, and anyone whose score on the state’s static risk assessment instrument is well above average risk at release.
Registration is a continuing obligation. Section 290 requires registering with the local police or sheriff within five working days of moving into, or changing residence within, a city or county. A conviction for failing to register extends the minimum period, by one year for a misdemeanor and three years for a felony.
Tier one and tier two registrants can petition to end registration after the minimum period has run, under Penal Code section 290.5. The petition is filed in the superior court of the county where the person is registered. The district attorney can request a hearing, and if the court denies the petition after a hearing, it sets a waiting period of one to five years before the person can petition again.
How These Cases Are Investigated and Defended
A sex offense case is often one person’s account against another’s. The defense does not start by insisting that account is false. It starts by finding out what can be checked: prior statements, messages, records, timelines, and who else knows what.
Most of that work is done through subpoenas and public records requests, and it is slow. Phone carriers and social media platforms hold records under their own retention rules. Prior reports and prior statements by a complaining witness may sit in other files. In cases involving children, how and when each statement was first obtained matters as much as what it says.
Jacob Levin interned in the San Francisco and Shasta County District Attorney’s offices, where his work included sexual assault cases.
Jacob Levin represented a client charged with two counts of rape. The defense investigation found that the complaining witness had made multiple prior rape accusations against other men, all of which were determined to be unfounded. After public records requests and development of the defense evidence, the rape charges were dismissed.
A client was charged with molesting four children. The defense investigation identified multiple procedural issues and uncovered impeachment evidence involving the mother of two of the children, including prior statements in which she threatened to falsely accuse a police officer of rape. All charges were dismissed.
A client was accused of felony communication with a minor for sexual purposes. After subpoenas were issued to multiple providers, the defense uncovered evidence that the minor had been posing as an adult on multiple social media platforms. The charges were dismissed.
Past results do not predict future outcomes. Every case depends on its own facts and circumstances.
Why These Cases Call for Restraint
Sex offense accusations are serious, and so are the harms they describe when they are true. A defense that treats the accusation as a joke, or the complaining witness as an enemy, rarely helps the person accused. The job is narrower and harder: test the evidence carefully and hold the prosecution to its burden.
Allegations of this kind sometimes arrive first as a request for a civil restraining order. Testimony given at that hearing can be used later in a criminal case, so the two have to be handled together. See restraining orders, about Jacob Levin, and case results.
Other Charges Defended in Shasta County
Each of these has its own evidence problems, its own procedural pressure points, and its own consequences.
Common Questions
Should I talk to the detective if I did nothing wrong?
No. Politely decline, say you want a lawyer, and stop talking about the facts. An interview is designed to gather evidence, and innocent people under stress make small mistakes in timing and detail that can later be presented as lies. Declining to talk is a constitutional right, not an admission of anything.
What is a pretext call?
It is a call or message from the accuser, made at a detective’s direction and recorded, meant to get you to apologize or admit something. Penal Code section 633 allows law enforcement, and people acting at their direction, to record it without your consent. If the accuser contacts you about the allegation, do not discuss it.
Does every sex offense conviction require lifetime registration?
No. Since January 1, 2021, California has three registration tiers: at least 10 years, at least 20 years, and life. The tier depends mainly on the offense of conviction. A first misdemeanor under section 647.6 or section 314 is generally tier one, while offenses such as forcible rape are tier three.
Can I get off the sex offender registry in California?
Tier one and tier two registrants can petition the superior court under Penal Code section 290.5 after completing the minimum registration period. The district attorney can request a hearing. If the petition is denied after a hearing, the court sets a waiting period of one to five years before a new petition can be filed.
What is the difference between Penal Code 647.6 and 288?
Section 647.6 covers annoying or molesting a child under 18 and is a misdemeanor on a first conviction, with up to one year in county jail. Section 288 covers a lewd act on a child and carries up to eight years in state prison for a child under 14, or more with force. Both require registration.
What if the accusation is false?
Then the work is proving what can be proved, not simply denying. False accusations are exposed through records: prior statements, messages, subpoenaed account data, and inconsistencies across interviews. That material has to be requested early, because phone carriers, platforms, and agencies keep records for limited periods.
How a case moves once it is filed: what happens after an arrest and what happens at arraignment. To talk through an investigation or a charge, contact the office. The wider picture: criminal defense in Shasta County.
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If you have been charged, served, or contacted by an investigator, the sooner a defense begins the more of it there is to build. Consultations are available.
Contacting Jacob Levin Law, by telephone or through this website, does not create an attorney-client relationship. Please do not send confidential information through this site or by email until an attorney-client relationship has been established in writing. Communications sent before that point may not be protected as confidential.