The law in Missouri establishes four different “degrees” of assault. First-degree assault is the most serious. If you are charged with assault in Missouri, you must be advised and defended by a Jefferson County assault attorney, and you must contact that attorney immediately.

What constitutes assault in this state? What about battery, a crime that is often linked to assault? What are your rights if you’re charged with assault? What steps will you need to take? If you’ll continue reading, you’ll find the answers in this brief introduction to assault laws in Missouri.

The first thing you should know about assault – and about battery – is that Missouri law does not establish a separate law for battery. What might constitute battery in another state is included under the assault laws of Missouri.

What Else Should You Know About Missouri’s Assault Laws?

The next thing you should know is that domestic assault cases are handled somewhat differently than other assaults. A domestic assault is an assault committed against a former or current spouse, co-parent, cohabitant, or intimate partner, or a relative by blood or marriage.

Assaults against “special victims” are also handled differently, and convictions entail harsher penalties. The list of special victims includes police officers, firefighters, parole and probation officers, cable workers, highway workers, mass transit workers, the elderly, and the disabled.

Finally, the details of an assault charge depend on the particulars of the alleged assault. When a charge is filed, the severity of the assault, the level of injury, the defendant’s criminal record, and whether the victim is a “special” victim or a domestic assault victim will all be considered.

What Is First-Degree Assault in Missouri?

Assault in the first, second, or third degree is a serious violent felony in Missouri, and a conviction may send a defendant to prison for at least a year. The most serious felony convictions may be penalized in Missouri with as much as thirty years in prison.

When someone intentionally causes or tries to cause someone else’s serious injury or death by assaulting that person, the charge is assault in the first degree, a Class B felony. However, when the victim is a special victim, assault in the first degree is a Class A felony.

What Is Second-Degree Assault?

In this state, you may be charged with assault in the second degree if you knowingly:

1. injure or try to injure another person while under the influence of “sudden passion”
2. injure or try to injure someone with a dangerous instrument or deadly weapon
3. or recklessly cause another person’s injury

Assault in the second degree is charged as a Class D felony. However, if the victim is a special victim, assault in the second degree is a Class B felony.

What Is Third-Degree Assault?

You may be charged with assault in the third degree if you intentionally injure another person. Assault in the third degree is charged as a Class E felony. However, if the victim is a special victim, assault in the third degree is a Class D felony.

What Is Fourth-Degree Assault?

Assault in the fourth degree is a misdemeanor in Missouri, but it is nevertheless considered a serious criminal offense. Any of the acts listed below may constitute assault in the fourth degree:

1. touching another person in a way that’s perceived as offensive or provocative
2. recklessly injuring or trying to injure another person
3. intentionally threatening someone so that the person fears serious physical injury
4. recklessly creating a risk of death or injury to another person
5. negligently injuring someone else with a deadly weapon
6. intentionally offending or provoking an incapacitated person

Assault in the fourth degree is usually a Class C misdemeanor, but when the victim is a special victim, the charge is a Class A misdemeanor that may be penalized upon conviction with up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $1,000.

How Can You Fight an Assault Charge?

There are many ways for a criminal defense attorney to defend you against an assault charge. The strategy that a Jefferson County assault lawyer will use to defend you will depend on the particulars of your assault case. For example, your attorney may tell the court that:

1. You acted to defend another person, or you acted in self-defense.
2. You did not act willfully or with criminal intent.
3. Another person committed the crime, and you’ve been misidentified.
4. There was no assault; the story was fabricated by the alleged victim.

Sometimes, the key to winning an assault case is to find and interview any witnesses as quickly as possible. Those witnesses may contradict the person who is claiming to be an assault victim. Your defense attorney can then gather evidence that supports those witness statements.

Should You Consider a Plea Bargain?

In most assault cases, a Jefferson County assault attorney will work to have your assault charge dismissed or reduced, and the case may not even go to trial. If the state’s case against you is persuasive and a conviction is certain, your attorney may negotiate a plea deal on your behalf.

In a typical plea deal, the defendant agrees to plead guilty to a lesser charge in return for a reduced sentence. However, if you are not guilty of assault, you should reject a plea deal, plead not guilty instead, and insist on a trial by jury. That is your right.

What Steps Should You Take If You Are Charged With Assault?

If you are taken into police custody and charged with assault, exercise your rights. Be friendly and cooperative, but insist on your right to remain silent and your right to an attorney. You can simply say, “I would prefer not to answer any questions until my lawyer can be present.”

Your lawyer must be an experienced Jefferson County assault lawyer, because you’ll be putting your fate in that lawyer’s hands. Don’t even think about defending yourself. Too much will be at stake, the law is too complicated, and any mistake that you make could land you in jail or prison.

Another thing you must not do is delay in calling an assault lawyer who can move you through this difficult situation and bring your case to its best possible outcome. If you are charged with assault, make the call to a good defense attorney as quickly as possible. That is your right.

Protecting children is a law enforcement priority, and it’s the reason for Missouri’s statutory rape laws, which presume that minors cannot consent to sexual activity. If you’re accused of statutory rape in Missouri, you must speak to a Jefferson County criminal defense attorney at once.

What is Missouri’s definition of statutory rape? What is the age of legal consent in Missouri? How can you defend yourself against a statutory rape charge? And what are the penalties for anyone who is convicted of statutory rape or child molestation in this state?

If you’ll continue reading, these questions will be answered in this brief discussion of the statutory rape laws in Missouri, and you will also learn how to find the legal help that you’ll need if you are charged with a sex crime that involves a minor.

What Are Missouri’s Statutory Rape Laws?

The age of consent in Missouri is 17 years old. This is the age at which someone is legally considered old enough to consent to sexual activity. However, in a statutory rape case, the determining factor is whether or not the victim is a minor. Consent isn’t the issue.

First-degree statutory rape or sodomy is the charge when anyone, without regard to age, engages in sexual intercourse or sodomy with a minor under the age of 14. First-degree statutory rape and sodomy are punishable upon conviction by 5 years to life in prison – or 10 years to life if the child is under age 12.

Statutory rape or sodomy in the second degree is the charge when someone 21 years old or older engages in sexual intercourse or sodomy with a minor below age 17. Statutory rape and sodomy in the second degree are Class D felonies, punishable upon conviction with up to 7 years in prison and a fine of no more than $10,000.

What Other Missouri Laws Address Sex Crimes Involving Minors?

It’s a crime in Missouri to ask or invite a minor under the age of 15 to engage in any type of sexual behavior or to lie about your age online to facilitate sexual behavior with a minor.

An adult 21 or older who texts a child to solicit sexual activity may be charged with child enticement, even when nothing sexual actually occurs. Attempting to entice a child is a Class D felony.

Enticement of a child is a Class C felony (punishable upon conviction with 3 to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000), unless the defendant has a previous enticement conviction, in which case it’s a Class B felony (punishable upon conviction with 5 to 15 years in prison).

Additionally, anyone in Missouri who is convicted of a sex crime that involves a minor must register as a sex offender. Registered sex offenders must provide their name, address, and photograph to a local police agency, and that information is then made accessible to the public.

What Is Child Molestation in Missouri?

In Missouri, an adult engaging in sexual behavior short of sodomy or intercourse with a minor under 17 has committed child molestation. Child molestation in the first degree is charged if the child is under 14 and the defendant injures the child, brandishes a weapon, or is related to the child.

Child molestation in the second degree is the charge whenever a child is below 12 years of age or if the child is below 17 and the defendant is more than 4 years older than the child, or if the defendant injures the child, brandishes a weapon, or is related to the child.

Child molestation in the third degree is the charge when sexual behavior occurs between a child below age 14 and a defendant of any age. Child molestation in the fourth degree is the charge when sexual behavior occurs between a child under 17 and a defendant more than 4 years older.

What Are the Penalties for a Child Molestation Conviction?

Listed here are the penalties for a child molestation conviction:

1. Child molestation in the first degree is a Class A felony. A conviction may be penalized with 10 years to life in prison. When the victim is below age 12, the offender will not qualify for parole or probation.
2. Child molestation in the second degree is a Class B felony. A conviction may be penalized with 5 to 15 years in prison.
3. Child molestation in the third degree is a Class C felony. A conviction may be penalized with 3 to 10 years in prison and a fine of $10,000. If compulsion or force was used, the crime is a Class B felony.
4. Child molestation in the fourth degree is a Class E felony. A conviction may be penalized with up to 4 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

How Can You Fight a Statutory Rape or Child Molestation Charge?

If you are charged with statutory rape in Missouri, you must contact a Missouri sex crimes attorney as quickly as possible. Exercise your right to remain silent until you can speak to your attorney, because anything you say to the police can be used against you.

The possible defenses against a charge of statutory rape include the conventional defenses available to all defendants in all criminal proceedings:

1. Another person did the crime, and the defendant is a victim of misidentification.
2. The crime never happened and the incident was fabricated by the purported victim.
3. It’s all simply a huge misunderstanding.

Defendants charged with statutory rape typically insist that they could not know that their victim was not old enough to consent. In Missouri, mistaking a minor’s age is not a defense to the charge of statutory rape or sodomy in the first degree of a minor below age 14.

However, mistaking someone’s age may be offered as a legal defense to a charge of statutory rape or sodomy in the second degree of a child age 14 or older if the defendant reasonably believed that the child was 17 years of age or older.

What Happens If Both Persons Are Minors?

Some states have what are known as “Romeo and Juliet” exemptions to protect persons under 21 from being charged with statutory rape as a result of consensual sexual activity with someone in the same age group.

Missouri has a partial “Romeo and Juliet” exception for consensual sex with or between young adults and minors who are no more than 4 years apart in age.

However, in Missouri, it is always against the law to engage in sexual conduct with someone who is below age 14, no matter the defendant’s age, and a criminal conviction for sexual conduct with someone under age 14 can send a defendant to prison for life in this state.

What Else Should You Know?

The laws that protect children are aggressively enforced in Missouri. When someone is convicted of statutory rape or child molestation, that offender should expect no leniency from the court.

If you are charged with statutory rape, enticement, or child molestation, you’ll need the advice and services of the right Jefferson County criminal defense attorney – someone who has had success defending statutory rape defendants and who knows how to represent you effectively.

Passing a bad check may not seem like a serious crime, but in Missouri, it is considered fraud, and depending on the details, you could be charged with a misdemeanor or a serious felony. If you are charged with check fraud, contact a Jefferson County check fraud attorney at once.

What are your rights if you are charged with check fraud in Missouri? What can happen if you are convicted? How will you and your attorney fight a check fraud charge? If you’ll keep reading this brief introduction to check fraud in Missouri, these questions will be answered below.

What Is Check Fraud?

What constitutes check fraud in Missouri? Someone commits check fraud when he or she writes or passes a check while knowing that it cannot be paid by the drawee or that there is no such drawee. If the issuer doesn’t have an account with the drawee, fraud may be charged immediately.

If the issuer has an account with the drawee, the issuer may receive a notice from county law enforcement authorities that payment must be made within ten days. Sending a notice protects those who are simply forgetful or have a temporary cash-flow problem but no intent to defraud.

Check fraud in the State of Missouri also includes altering the writing on a check or constructing a fake check as well as intentionally writing bad checks to merchants and creditors.

When Is Check Fraud a Felony? When Is It a Misdemeanor?

Failure to pay a bad check within ten days after receiving the notice in writing that it has not been honored by the drawee is considered prima facie evidence of the intent to defraud – that is, it is considered enough evidence to convict.

Check fraud in Missouri is a Class A misdemeanor charge when the check’s amount was for less than $750. Check fraud is a Class E felony charge when the amount of the check (or the total for multiple checks within a ten-day period) is for $750 or more.

Check fraud is also a Class E felony charge if the check was drawn on a closed or non-existent account. Check forgery – forging another person’s name on a check – is a Class D felony.

A check fraud conviction also creates a criminal record that can make finding work or housing difficult. If you hold a professional license, a conviction may trigger disciplinary action by your licensing board. If you are not a U.S. citizen, a conviction may lead to a deportation proceeding.

Is It Legal to Write a Post-Dated Check?

There is no law in the State of Missouri against writing a post-dated check unless the check bounces when the recipient attempts to deposit or cash it on or after the date written on the check.

Someone who writes a postdated check that bounces will not be convicted of check fraud unless a prosecutor can prove that the check was written with the intent to defraud the recipient or with the knowledge that the check would not be honored when the date on the check arrived.

What Is the Central Question in Most Check Fraud Cases?

In most check fraud cases, the intent of the person who wrote the check is the central question. Did that person have a criminal intent to defraud, or was the bad check written simply out of forgetfulness or absent-mindedness?

If you are prosecuted for check fraud in Missouri, a Jefferson County check fraud attorney’s job will be to demonstrate to the court that you acted in good faith, you simply made a mistake, and you had no criminal intent.

The prosecutor in these cases often has the more difficult legal task – proving to the jurors “beyond a reasonable doubt” that the defendant wrote a bad check and did so with criminal intent to defraud the recipient.

However, in some bad check cases, a prosecutor may have genuine evidence of criminal intent. If the defendant told a witness – or bragged on social media – that he or she wrote a bad check meant to defraud the recipient, that admission may be enough to win a check fraud conviction.

If You Are Placed Under Arrest

If you are placed under arrest and charged with check fraud or check forgery in Jefferson County or anywhere in the greater St. Louis area, you must exercise your legal rights. You have the right to remain silent, and you have the right to have your attorney present during any questioning.

Do not try to explain to the police why you wrote a bad check. Anything you say could end up being used against you.

Be cooperative, friendly, and compliant, but politely insist on your legal rights. Simply say, “I would prefer not to answer questions until my attorney can be present.” Then say no more, but contact a Jefferson County criminal defense attorney at the first opportunity you have.

How Will Your Attorney Handle Your Check Fraud Case?

Your Jefferson County check fraud lawyer will investigate a check fraud or check forgery charge and will find any weaknesses or flaws in the state’s case against you. In most cases, your defense lawyer will then seek to have the charge against you dropped or dismissed.

If the charge cannot be dropped or dismissed, your attorney will defend you aggressively and effectively in the courtroom, tell the jurors what happened, and explain to the jurors why they should find you not guilty – unless the evidence is overwhelming and your conviction is certain.

Don’t Try to Be Your Own Attorney

If the state’s evidence against you is conclusive, your defense attorney may be able to negotiate an acceptable plea bargain on your behalf. In a typical plea deal, the defendant enters a guilty plea to a lesser charge and agrees to serve a reduced or alternative sentence.

You are more likely to be offered a plea deal if it is your first offense. However, you must not try to represent yourself or to act as your own attorney. In the 21st century, the law in our state is too complex, and too much will be at stake. Any mistake could have severe, lasting consequences.

If you are charged with check fraud, check forgery, or with any other fraud or forgery charge or financial crime in Jefferson County or in the greater St. Louis area, obtain the advice and representation of a Jefferson County check fraud lawyer as quickly as possible.