Interviewer: Is it obvious that Police won’t do anything until they have a lot of evidence?

Tom Chaves: The reality is like in most situations involving police work, without sufficient evidence to arrest someone, which is based on the probable cause standard, for these type of cases, it involves work to develop the probable cause until they reach that threshold, nobody is typically going to do anything.

Neither Police Nor Prosecutors Handle a Sex Crime Unless there is a Large Amount of Evidence Involved

Interviewer: When you had these cases and you had to defend them was there usually a large amount of evidence?

Tom Chaves: In general, for the cases that I’ve had in this whole area of both sexual offenses and in addition to that, in the child pornography area, those had a great deal of evidence. Neither the police nor the prosecutor’s offices typically bring these type of charges in a cavalier way based on very limited evidence because they know they have a high standard of proof and they’re not going to be willing to prosecute a case unless they feel there is sufficient evidence so that if they had to try the case that they could obtain a conviction.

Recommendations For Individuals Accused of Sex Crimes in New Jersey

Interviewer: Any recommendations for someone that’s, you know, accused of a crime like this, any sex crime?

Tom Chaves: I think the same rules apply for sex crimes as opposed to and in addition to any other crime. Rule number one is not to give a statement to the police under any circumstances and number two is to hire a lawyer.