Case Story: Defending a Foster Parent against False Allegations of Sexual Assault

People with kids sometimes end up losing custody of them. It’s a sad fact, but it’s true. And when this happens, the question becomes—what do we do with these “unwanted” children? Because through no fault of their own, they are now without love, without support, and without a future. 

In America, there’s where foster parents step in. Among the most selfless people walking among us, foster parents come in and accept these “unwanted” children, take them into their homes, and raise them as their own. It’s truly the human condition at its best.

But what happens when this seemingly idyllic situation doesn’t turn out so perfectly? When the foster child gets placed in a home that is not full of love. A home with people who are looking to hurt, not help, the child in need.

At first blush, that’s what this case is about.

Our client was charged with sexually assaulting his former foster daughter. But when he came to us and explained the girl’s allegations, things didn’t seem to add up. So we became his lawyers and immediately began investigating the case. After months of relentless work, we uncovered enough evidence that we believed established our client’s innocence. 

Luckily—and to his credit—the prosecutor agreed and dropped the case.

Here’s how we did it.

The First Allegation

Our client was a foster parent for a number of years. One such foster placement involved a young girl who was removed from her biological mother due to substance abuse. Our client and his family thus opened their home to the girl, and she became a member of their family.

At first, things went well. Our client and his family took wonderful care of the girl, the girl had her own room in the home, and she was thriving. At no point were there ever any indications of anything inappropriate happening inside the home.

Then in 2019, the girl made a disclosure to her teacher that our client had touched her in her private parts. Then, like now, our client vehemently denied the allegation and agreed to cooperate with law enforcement in any way to clear his name.

As part of that cooperation, the girl was given a forensic interview where she recanted her allegations. The matter was thus closed without any further action.

Our client was relieved, but no longer at ease in his own home.

The Second Allegation

Despite the false allegation, the family continued to foster the girl, and life in the home remained positive. But given the claims, our client had far less interaction with the girl post-2019, and never any one-on-one contact. 

For the next few years, the family continued to foster the girl and she continued to live in their home, until she eventually transitioned out and went back to living with her biological father.

In hindsight, this was a major turning point for everyone.

In 2024, while living with her biological father, the girl once again levied allegations of sexual assault against our client. But this time she backed up the allegations during a forensic interview. Given this “corroboration,” the state arrested our client and charged him with first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Our client’s 2024 story was the same as his 2019 one—that he had never once touched the girl in any sexual or inappropriate way.

Despite his steadfast denials, he was now facing serious criminal charges. So once he bailed out of jail, he hired our firm to work to clear his name.

And that’s exactly what we did.

The Investigation

With the previous false allegation as our North Star, we began to investigate every aspect of the girl’s story to look for “red flags”—reasons why she might once again be making a false allegation against our client. 

And the more we looked, the more we found.

First, we interviewed everyone who lived in our client’s home: his wife, his two daughters, and his son. Mind you, all these people considered the girl their daughter or sister. Despite this, everyone’s story had the same theme: she was a good person who struggled with the truth.

Now we know the response to this—these people are our client’s family, of course they are going to say negative things about the alleged victim. And fair enough. But it was the uniformity in their statements that stood out to us.

So we kept digging.

Next we talked to people who knew the girl’s biological father. This was important because that is where the girl was staying when the new allegations arose. And time and again, a theme emerged from the people we talked to: things didn’t seem right with the biological father and his relationship with the girl.

Friends, neighbors, and even fellow parishioners all indicated “red flags” regarding the biological father and his treatment of the girl.

To us, more smoke, but not quite fire.

Finally, we talked to people at the girl’s school.

Both school personnel and school records established the girl’s lack of honesty. Multiple people we talked to and documents we read called into question the girl’s tendency to be untruthful.

It was the final nail in the coffin, the thing we believed tilted the scales in favor of innocence.

And so we took our findings to the prosecutor.

The Decision

As is often true in the criminal adversarial process, the prosecutor was at first skeptical of our conclusion that our client was 100% factually innocent.

But as noted above—and once again to his credit—the prosecutor eventually came around and began to have misgivings about the strength of his case. And after numerous conversations with attorneys in our office, the prosecutor made the courageous (and we believe correct) decision to dismiss the charges against our client.

Once again, he was a free and innocent man.

This is always a bittersweet moment for a client. Yes, they are happy to have their case dismissed and their freedom back. But at what cost? A criminal charge, and here a very serious one, is a bell that’s hard to un-ring. 

Could the state have investigated more before charging our client? Perhaps. But that, too, is tricky in a situation like this one. After all, if a child is really being sexually abused by a foster parent, we all want swift action by the police. 

On the other hand, if that child has a history of not telling the truth, and specific previous conduct indicating a propensity for making false allegations, maybe a little more caution is warranted.

The Takeaway

If there’s any lesson from this case, it’s that it’s easy to play Monday Morning Quarterback.

For us, this case seemed obvious from the beginning: a girl with a history of not telling the truth back at it again. And while the state didn’t see it that way at the beginning, at least they did at the end.

Not an ideal beginning, but an ideal end.

And we are grateful to have been able to provide such an ending to our client.

Because as a loving foster parent, husband, and father, nobody deserved it more.