I recently read an article in our local media about a gentleman who recently had charges dropped against him after he had been accused of sexually assaulting a young lady outside of a nightclub at our local Disney Springs Entertainment Complex. Apparently, he was originally arrested, when she woke up in the morning, she was found sort of messed up and she had indicated that she had a lot to drink and she believed that she had been sexually assaulted by this young man. Now, apparently the police recovered video from the entertainment complex that showed him leaving with her, he’s the last person that was known to be with her and that sort of thing. Apparently he has indicated or admitted that he had sex with her, he just claimed that it was a consensual matter. Well the police recently dropped charges against him and apparently the young lady decided that she did not want to testify against him and the police believe that they could not prove their case beyond the reasonable doubt against him for the criminal charge, therefore, they dropped the charges.
As a civil attorney, someone who doesn’t handle criminal cases, when we handle cases, we are not interested or involved in deciding whether someone goes to jail or someone serves probation or something like that. Our cases all involve civil damages matters such as what was this entertainment complex, did they have enough security to protect even a drunk young lady from being sexually assaulted or being sexually abused in some way. So the simple answer to the question at the beginning of this video is no, there doesn’t necessarily have to be a criminal conviction for us to get involved in a case. Many times, in fact most times, it’s helpful to us but there doesn’t have to be criminal charges or criminal conviction in place for us to be able to pursue a case, a civil case for our clients in seeking money damages for injuries or psychological problems arising from an assault or something of that nature.
So if you have any questions regarding an assault case or a case of sexual assault, please call me or my law partner Robert Hemphill at (407) 254-4901, or visit our website at cullen-hemphill.com.
