What Defenses Can I Take Against Child Abuse?

When all you do is love and care for your minor child, it is heartbreaking to receive notice that your former spouse is throwing accusations of child abuse your way. Unfortunately, child abuse is commonly, falsely alleged during divorce proceedings, in one spouse’s attempt to gain sole physical and legal custody over the child. Such allegations may leave the New Jersey family court no choice but to get the attention of a criminal prosecutor. Continue reading to learn the possible defenses you may take against a false allegation of child abuse and how one of the experienced New Jersey & Pennsylvania criminal defense lawyers at The Vigilante Law Firm, P.C. can help shield you from such charges.

What defenses can I possibly take against a false allegation of child abuse?

Even if you have a clean conscious and you know that you have never acted abusive toward your minor child, you must take these proposed allegations seriously. This is because, if you do not properly defend against them, you may be up against thousands of dollars in fines and over a year in jail. What’s worse, you may even be stripped of having as little as visitation rights over your child. Without further ado, below are possible defenses that you may take in your criminal court proceedings:

• You may argue that the accuser has a motive to lie about child abuse (i.e., they want sole custody over your child).
• You may argue that there are inconsistencies or contradictions amongst the testimonies made by the witnesses brought on by the accuser.
• You may argue that the investigator failed to collect a sufficient amount of evidence or only looked for evidence that worked against you (i.e., bias or prejudice).

What do I need to do to back up these defenses?

You do not want to simply redirect blame onto the accuser or investigator and turn your criminal court proceedings into a case of “he-said, she-said.” Rather, you will want to back up your defenses with plausible evidence that points to your quality character and overall innocence. More specific initiatives read as follows:

• You may summon character witnesses to the stand to boost your credibility and reputation.
• You may provide evidence that points to an alternate theory for how your child incurred their injuries.
• You may provide evidence that points to an alibi (i.e., you were in a different place at the time of the alleged incident).
• You may express your willingness to submit to a lie detector test and/or psychological test and share your passing results.

Undoubtedly, you must put a lot of thought into your defense strategy. So your next order of business should be to initiate a conversation with one of the skilled New Jersey criminal defense lawyers. Someone at The Vigilante Law Firm, P.C. is awaiting your phone call.