I am writing this on behalf of a relative of mine. He is being charged with rape of his sister when they were both minors. He says it never happened. He is being held without bail and has been there for over a year now without a court date it keeps changing. This all started when his sister called him from a recorded line accusing him of rape. He advised he never knew he was being recorded and that he never admitted to anything. The recording has not be released publically but his public defender says that most likely he will do time for this crime for the way the conversation went. He says, all he said was that one time he and his sister were drugged by parents and woke up naked. She just recently acused her grandpa and friend's dad of rape (the same one she confided in about this case)
I need to stress an aspect of Mr. Marshall's answer - please, on behalf of your relative, STOP TALKING TO THEM ABOUT THE CASE.
Don't make a bad situation worse by giving the prosecution statements from him about his case. Any and all calls, letters and even visits can be recorded and monitored. Those statements are NOT protected unless they're from him to his attorney.
The best thing you can do is offer support to him and his attorney, should they need additional information or witnesses to any issues in the case.
Your relative should NOT be discussing his case with ANYONE except his lawyer... and that includes YOU. His phone calls from the jail are being recorded and his mail is monitored. After getting busted once for saying too much on a phone call, he should be more careful.
So-called "pretext phone calls" are common when the police are investigating allegations of sex crimes. The alleged victim or another person close to the case makes a recorded call, under the supervision of the police. In many cases, the police actually direct the conversation, telling the victim what to ask, in an attempt to get more information.
Is is perfectly legal for the cops to do this.
Your family member already has an attorney, who is in a better position to answer questions about his case than a stranger on the Internet who knows nothing about his case.
This is called a pretextual telephone call. It is not only legal, it is standard operating procedure. Police do this ALL THE TIME in cases when someone is accused of sex with a minor. They listen in, they put the minor on the phone, and they attempt to get the accused person to admit to the crime by saying, "I'm sorry," or, "I'll never do it again," or, "It was just the once." It certainly sounds like they struck gold in the case of your relative.
If the court date keeps changing, it is because your relative's lawyer is continuing the case, doubtless for tactical reasons. Believe me, the defendant is in NO HURRY to bring this case to trial.
