Being investigated or arrested for sexual assault in South Carolina raises urgent questions about bond, what happens if bond is denied, and how to handle police contact before charges are even filed. Greg McCollum of the Complete Legal Defense Team addresses each of these situations below.
Frequently Asked Questions
Myrtle Beach Sexual Assault Charges – Can You Get Bond After an Arrest?
Yes. Sometimes the bond may be unnaturally high because there is a lot of emotion in a sexual assault case. There is a particular crime, not the legal name for it, but if you are charged with assaulting a child, you cannot get out on bond. You have to go in front of a circuit court judge.
On other charges, you are probably going to have a high bond, but they set bonds on those charges every day. It is normal. You are getting out on bond.
Myrtle Beach Sexual Assault Arrest – What Happens If Bond Is Denied?
You could be stuck in jail certainly for a long time, weeks or months, if bond is denied. That is a terrible situation to be in. Interestingly, a lot of sexual assault cases involve an investigation where there has been an accusation, so the person who is being charged can kind of see it coming because the detective wants to talk to them.
They want them to do a polygraph or something like that. That is when you want to get a lawyer involved. You want to get involved before you get arrested so that you have a lawyer at your bond hearing, and that can change everything. It could be the difference between you getting bail or not.
Police Want to Question You About Sexual Assault? Do This Immediately
You should get a lawyer, one hundred percent. Get a lawyer, because now you are being investigated for a sexual assault, so you are being investigated for rape basically, and that is one of the most serious charges that you could get. There was something that had enough credibility with a police detective to question you, and I see this all the time.
I just talked to somebody a few days ago who was set to come in to our office. He had been questioned by the police about a month earlier, without a lawyer. He went in and gave a statement and some other things were done, and you know, from his point of view, I’m fine, I have nothing to hide.
Prior to him being able to come into our office, he got notification that there were active warrants for him, and so he was being arrested. It is a life altering situation. You better be safe than sorry.
We do these investigations all the time. If the police want to get a statement from you about a sexual assault allegation, if there is any way possible, you want to contact a lawyer who can help you with that, somebody who knows how those investigations work and somebody who can help you get through that because it is extremely important.
Greg McCollum has practiced law for roughly 30 years and previously worked as a prosecutor, giving him insight into how the state builds and pursues sexual assault cases in South Carolina. That background can matter at every stage discussed above, from bond hearings to police questioning.
If you have questions about sexual assault charges in South Carolina, call the Greg McCollum Complete Legal Defense Team at (843) 626-5480. Consultations are confidential.
