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Sex Crimes
Lead attorney Zachary Margulis-Ohnuma has been representing both people alleged to have committed sex crimes and victims of sex crimes since 2002. Sex crimes carry a special stigma, which is enshrined in law through sex offender registration. Each state has its own registry and there is a national system designed to share information among law enforcement and track people convicted of sex offenses nationally and internationally. The New York Sex Offender Registration Act is especially complicated, with a point scoring system, three "levels" of registration, overrides, departures, and the possibility for modifications. Once convicted, a sex offender is marked for life.
Conviction of a sex crime can be more serious than any other kind of criminal conviction. Long prison terms are normal, even for simple possession of child pornography. After prison, an offender's name, address and photograph may be posted on the Internet and publicized by the police. A person convicted of a sex offense is limited in the kinds of jobs he can hold and where he can live. Even conviction of a sexual misdemeanor will affect you the rest of your life.
Examples of Successful Outcomes in Sex Crimes Cases
In the past few years our advocacy has led to the following results, among others:
After a jury trial in New York Supreme Court, we obtained dismissals of five counts and acquittals on three counts in a case where an airline pilot was accused of distributing and possessing illegal child pornography by carrying an iPad into Kennedy Airport from abroad
In the summer of 2019, our client was acquitted of three counts of sex-trafficking after a trial in federal court in the Southern District of New York—two of the counts of acquittal involved allegations that he used force, fraud or coercion to traffic adult victims; the third alleged sex trafficking a minor victim
We have resolved separate cases charging possession of child pornography in both state and federal court with no jail or prison time for a former U.S. soldier, a businessman, a young bodega worker, an artist, and others.
We obtained a six-month sentence in federal court for a U.K. national convicted of possessing child pornography after being charged with a child pornography offense in England years earlier
After a co-worker accused a foreign doctor we represented of sexual harassment, he was arrested but all charges were dismissed in court so that his immigration status was not affected
In many cases, our clients have received the lowest level of sex offender registration even after convictions for serious sex crimes including forcible rape of a stranger, child pornography, and statutory rape; Level One registration led to their information being removed from the New York State Sex Offender Registry website
* Past results are no indicator of future outcomes, each case is unique.