Online Solicitation of a Minor
Online solicitation of a minor under section 33.021 of the Penal Code criminalizes using electronic communications to solicit a minor to meet for sexual contact, or sending sexually explicit material to a minor. Solicitation to meet is a second-degree felony: two to twenty years. Sexually explicit communication with a minor is a third-degree felony, or a second-degree felony if the minor is under fourteen.
A conviction requires sex-offender registration.
How these cases work
The vast majority of online-solicitation prosecutions in Texas arise from undercover law enforcement operations. An officer poses as a minor on a dating app, social media platform, or chat site. The officer waits for a target to initiate sexually explicit conversation, steers the conversation toward a meeting, and arrests the target when he arrives at the agreed location. No actual child is involved.
Constitutional issues
We successfully challenged a portion of section 33.021 in Ex parte Lo. There the Court of Criminal Appeals unanimously held subsection (b) facially unconstitutional under the First Amendment. That decision freed our client and resulted in dozens of others getting out of prison or off the sex-offender registry. It also resulted in the Legislature rewriting the statute, and the voters amending the Texas Constitution. (How many lawyers can truthfully say they caused an amendment to the Texas Constitution? Not many.)
The remaining subsections of section 33.021 have their own constitutional vulnerabilities, which we continue to litigate.
Defense
The defense in sting cases focuses on what the defendant actually said and did. Did the defendant believe he was communicating with a child? Did the defendant take a substantial step toward meeting? Was the sexually explicit content solicited by the undercover officer or initiated by the defendant? The chat logs are the case, and every word matters.
Lawyers across Texas refer online-solicitation cases to us, because we are the subject-matter experts.
We don’t just practice law. We make it.
Talk to us
713-224-1747.
If you have been convicted and need an appeal, email us at [email protected].