Houston Kidnapping Defense Lawyer

Accusations of kidnapping can ruin your life. These accusations come with more than the threat of prison time or fines. If you don’t challenge accusations of kidnapping, your relationship with the children in your life may never be the same. You may even find yourself with limited access to young people you want to watch grow up.

Fortunately, you don’t have to rely on a public defender to get you out of kidnapping charges. Mary E. Conn & Associates can meet with you to discuss what defenses can help you protect your future. The firm’s team of kidnapping defense lawyers in Houston will continually strive to have the charges brought against you reduced or dropped. 

Defining Kidnapping in Texas

The state of Texas defines kidnapping as:

• The act of stealing a person
• The act of carrying off a person
• The act of abducting a person
• The act of confining a person in a controlled space
• The act of using another entity for illegal purposes, including ransom, reward, the facilitation of a crime, or terrorizing related parties

Prosecutors who want to take action against you or someone you love must prove that the defendant had an immoral motive before engaging in the unlawful removal of a person from a space. In other words, intent plays a particularly powerful role in Texas’s kidnapping cases.

The Four Different Types of Kidnapping Charges

Texas’s prosecutors can specifically bring one of four kidnapping charges against parties they believe to be engaging in illegal activities. These kidnapping charges break down as follows:

• Aggravated kidnapping: kidnapping partnered with another form of criminal misconduct, including grand theft auto or sexual assault
• Restraint: the meaningful and illegal construction of someone else’s movement, sometimes through the use of intimidation or deception
• Abduction: relocating a person to a place where they’re unlikely to be found
• Smuggling of persons: the illegal, non-consensual transportation of one or more parties 

While the term “kidnapping” implies that only minors may suffer from this kind of mistreatment, this is not the case. Anyone of any age may face an unlawful abduction and thereby make accusations of kidnapping against another party.

Criminal Consequences for Kidnapping

Texas’s prosecutors can charge you with third-degree felony charges upon accusing you of kidnapping another party. These accusations come with the threat of up to ten years in prison and fines of up to $10,000. 

If you don’t challenge the charges brought against you, you may also face the revocation of a firearm’s license, the seizing of your firearms, and the loss of the right to vote. You may even lose the opportunity to pursue higher education or hold certain jobs. What’s more, the state of Texas will create a criminal record that will follow you even if you move out of state.

It’s with the risk of these consequences in mind that our team recommends you connect with a Houston kidnapping defense attorney as soon as you can after your arrest. The sooner you can secure professional, individualized representation, the sooner you can protect your future from the consequences of wrongful charges.

When Should You Contact an Experienced Houston Kidnapping Lawyer?

You have the right to connect with a private attorney within hours of your arrest. Officers may offer you access to a public defender, but you can bring in independent counsel without officers preventing you from doing so. No officer should attempt to deny or prevent you from reaching out to a counselor who can represent your best interests.

It is recommended that you make note of any officer misconduct while you’re waiting for an attorney to arrive. Officers who make groundless accusations against you, engage in bias, or fail to uphold your rights can invalidate any evidence they may later try to bring against you long before you go to trial.

How to Challenge Kidnapping Charges

You can create a defense against wrongful kidnapping charges by considering what charges local officers arrested you on. These parties have an obligation to prove that you engaged in criminal kidnapping “beyond a reasonable doubt.” That standard is high and allows you to argue against your accusations by pointing out the prosecution’s weakest points.

Our kidnapping defense attorneys in Houston can help you argue against your kidnapping charges by elaborating on:

• Your alibi
• Actions taken under duress or while coerced
• Lack of intent
• Mistaken identity

You may alternatively want to argue that you did, in fact, remove someone from another location but that you did so with “valid reasons.” Upholding an affirmative defense requires you to make certain points, including the following:

• The lack of violence or force during the relocation of the victim
• Any relationship the defendant has with the victim
• The defendant’s intent

Our team can work with you to determine what combination of defenses might best suit your case when you go to court. Your Houston, TX kidnapping defense lawyer will then walk you through what to expect from the legal process. You can bring any questions you may have about Texas’s criminal proceedings to our team before and during your case.

Let Houston Kidnapping Defense Lawyers Represent You

Should you find yourself facing accusations of kidnapping, Houston criminal defense attorneys can leap to your rescue. Mary E. Conn & Associates has years of experience cultivating defenses against wrongful kidnapping charges and wants to put that experience to use for you. 

The team of attorneys’ efforts can help reduce charges brought against you or see them dropped entirely.

Whether you want to upgrade from public defender representation or forgo public representation altogether, Mary E. Conn & Associates stands with you. Contact us online or call (713) 357-4190 to book a case evaluation with the team.