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Firm Reduces Felony Charges to Misdemeanors for Teen

Updated: November 18, 2019
Nicholas Gounaris
By Nicholas Gounaris
Lawyer

Nicholas G. Gounaris is a skilled trial lawyer and founding partner of Gounaris Abboud law firm. He provides clients of the firm with competent legal representation and focuses his law practice in the areas of DUI Defense, Criminal Defense, Family Law Issues, Federal Criminal Law and Personal Injury cases.

A prominent athlete at a local high school in the Dayton was pulled out of school when he was charged with two serious felonies. The teen was accused of abduction and gross sexual imposition by a teenage girl. When charged with these crimes, our client claimed that he was innocent and was in a consensual relationship with the girl. If convicted of both felonies, the teenager would face potential prison time and would be required to register as a sex offender with the county sheriff’s office. This registration would remain on his record for years and possibly for life.

At Gounaris Abboud, we knew that this teen’s future was at stake in his case. We went the extra mile for this client and began an in-depth investigation of the alleged crime. The victim in the crime claimed that she was exposed to sexual contact with the defendant that was nonconsensual. Our defendant claimed that the acts were consensual. At the firm, we personally tracked down the people that were at the event where the crime allegedly took place. We interviewed the attendees at the event and obtained witness statements.

We then interviewed friends and siblings of the parties involved and subpoenaed phone records to discover explicit text messages sent between the two parties. All of this investigative research was done by our firm. It was not performed by a police agency or another investigative organization. The information that we obtained further proved the fact that our defendant was innocent of his crimes and was in a consensual relationship with the woman who was accusing him of his crimes.

The prosecution agreed that the woman would never win the case with the information obtained, so the prosecution agreed to reduce the charges to misdemeanors. Now, our client will not face a felony and will not need to register as a sex offender. He was permitted to return to school only four weeks after the initial charge.

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