Criminal charges of any kind may impact a person’s life, but those charges with mandatory minimum sentences put a particular pressure on the person.
Depending on the charges and the investigation, the best criminal defense may involve plea deals or other ways of reducing maximum sentences.
Guilty plea in Missouri
As the United States Department of Justice reports, the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force and Homeland Security Investigations completed a child pornography investigation that started in California. HSI investigated users of an encrypted, cloud-based service that enabled 145 registered users to share, communicate and collaborate in a digital storage space. Files within that space contained child pornagrphy uploaded by participants in the chat room of the cloud platform.
Investigators executed a search warrant at a 41-year-old woman’s residence in Taney County in January. She pleaded guilty to two charges: one count of sexual exploitation of minors and one count of child pornography distribution.
It is unknown if her plea was the result of a criminal defense plea deal, but her guilty plea included admitting that her co-defendant used her iPhone to record and view child pornography together.
The minimum mandatory sentence for these two counts is 15 years in federal prison without parole, up to 50 years.
Criminal defense against sex crime charges
These investigations are complicated and sensitive and there are a lot of moving parts. No matter the charges, anyone accused of a crime is innocent until proven guilty and due process must follow strict procedures in order to prove such guilt legally. Convictions of sex crimes have a serious impact on the rest of someone’s life, including minimum jail sentences and being a registered sex offender even after release.
