Sex Crimes Attorney in Austin: Defending Sex Offense Charges in Travis County

Few accusations do as much damage as a sex crime allegation, and the damage often starts before anyone is charged. A detective leaves a voicemail, a phone is taken, a school or employer hears a rumor, and a person who has never been in trouble is suddenly facing a felony, a public registry and the possible loss of a career. Being accused does not make a person guilty. The State must prove every element beyond a reasonable doubt, and these cases often rest on one person’s account, a handful of messages and forensic results that look more certain than they are. Barton & Associates defends people accused of sex offenses in the Travis County courts and in the federal court in Austin, from a misdemeanor to a first-degree felony.

Sex crime defense is one part of what our Austin criminal defense attorney team does. This page covers the charges Texas prosecutors file most often, what each one can cost, how registration works, how a case moves through Austin and Travis County, and where defenses tend to be found. If an officer has contacted you, stop discussing the allegation until you have talked with a lawyer. Your first consultation is free and confidential.

Sex Crime Cases We Handle in Travis County

Each page below takes up one kind of case in more detail. Many people face more than one charge at once, so call us if yours does not fit under a single heading.

• Rape and sexual assault crimes: sexual assault and aggravated sexual assault charges, whether the complainant is an adult or a child.
• Sexual assault of a minor: cases that depend on the age of the other person.
• Indecency with a minor: allegations of sexual touching, or of exposure, involving someone younger than 17.
• Sex crimes with a minor: other sex charges involving a child or teenager, including contact made online.
• Possession of pornographic material: charges built on child pornography images or files.
• Improper relationship: charges against teachers, coaches and other school employees.
• Indecent assault: unwanted touching or exposure, most often charged as a misdemeanor.
• Solicitation and prostitution: charges for offering, or paying for, a sexual act.

The First Days of a Sex Crime Investigation in Austin

A great many cases begin quietly. In Austin, a report involving a child is usually handled by the Austin Police Department’s Child Abuse Unit, which investigates sexual abuse of children younger than 17 and arranges forensic interviews, and by the city and county’s Child Protection Team, which includes the Center for Child Protection, the Dell Children’s medical team, the Department of Family and Protective Services, the police and the district attorney. Reports of sexual assault involving adults are investigated by APD detectives, and the Travis County District Attorney’s Office has a Special Victims Unit that prosecutes sexual assault cases. The investigation may be under way for weeks before you hear about it.

When an officer calls and asks you to come in and give your side, you are not required to say anything. The conversation is recorded, it is the State’s chance to gather evidence, and a person who believes an honest explanation will end the matter often supplies the proof that starts it. You may politely decline and ask for a lawyer. Do not agree to a search of your phone without a warrant and a lawyer’s advice. Our article on your rights during a police stop explains what to say and what to leave unsaid.

Do not delete messages, photos or accounts. Once you know of an investigation, removing material can be charged separately as tampering with evidence, and it looks like an admission. Do not contact the accuser, directly or through friends. Write down your own account for your lawyer alone, with dates, places and names, and keep it away from everyone else. If you have already been arrested, a motion to suppress may later challenge the stop, the search or the statement, and our article on motions to suppress in Texas explains how that works.

Sexual Assault and Aggravated Sexual Assault

Texas has no crime named rape, although people use the word. A case described that way is filed as sexual assault or aggravated sexual assault. Section 22.011 of the Penal Code defines sexual assault as penetration of the anus or sexual organ, or certain contact involving the mouth, anus or sexual organ, without the other person’s consent. The same acts with a child under 17 qualify as well, and the accused’s belief about the child’s age does not matter. It is a second-degree felony, so the sentence is two to 20 years, and a $10,000 fine is possible. The statute describes lack of consent in many ways: force or coercion, a threat the other person believed, unconsciousness, a mental condition that prevents understanding or resistance, a drug given secretly, and abuse of a trusted or official position.

Aggravated sexual assault is the more serious version, defined in Section 22.021. Prosecutors charge it when they can allege one of several added facts: serious bodily injury or attempted death, a threat to kill, seriously injure or kidnap, a deadly weapon, another participant, or a drug used to help commit the act. The offense is also aggravated whenever the complainant is under 14, elderly or disabled. It is a first-degree felony, so the sentence runs from five years to 99 years or life, with a possible fine of $10,000. For the gravest child cases the law requires at least 25 years, and for offenses on or after September 1, 2025 one age cutoff for that requirement moved from under 6 to under 10. Our rape and sexual assault page, listed above, goes further into these charges for anyone who needs a sexual assault defense attorney in Austin.

What a Jury Hears in an Adult Sexual Assault Case

The real dispute in most adult cases is not whether two people were together. It is what each of them understood and what happened next. Jurors may hear from the complainant, from friends the complainant told, from the nurse who performed a forensic exam, from a DNA analyst and from the detective who took the report, and they may see text messages, social media posts and video. Alcohol is common and cuts in several directions. Our task is to test each source against the others.

We look at who said what and when, whether an account changed, why a report was delayed or made, what the messages before and after show and whether any witness has a reason to shade the story. A forensic exam can confirm that contact took place without saying anything about consent, and a missing or negative DNA result can matter little or a great deal depending on the allegation. Rule 412 of the Texas Rules of Evidence limits what can be said about a complainant’s past sexual behavior, and the judge rules on that before the jury hears anything. Some cases turn on identity, on a report made during a custody fight or after a breakup, or on a statement taken without proper warnings.

Charges Involving Children and Teenagers

Seventeen is the age of consent in Texas, and anyone younger is a child who cannot lawfully agree to sexual activity. No Texas offense is named statutory rape. Instead, sexual contact or penetration with a child is prosecuted as sexual assault of a child, as indecency with a child, or as aggravated sexual assault if the child is under 14, and it does not help to say you thought the child was older. Section 21.11, indecency with a child, applies when someone touches a child’s breast, genitals or anus, or exposes themselves to a child, intending sexual arousal or gratification. The touching version is a second-degree felony and the exposure version a third-degree felony. Continuous sexual abuse of a young child, in Section 21.02, requires at least two acts spread across 30 days or more against a child under 14. It is a first-degree felony, and the sentence is life or 25 to 99 years.

Texas does allow a limited close-in-age defense. Under Section 22.011(e), the accused may show that the other person was 14 or older, that the accused was no more than three years older and not required to register as a sex offender, and that the statute’s other conditions were met. The accused has to bring forward some evidence, and then the State must disprove the defense beyond a reasonable doubt. It is not available when the other person was younger than 14. The matching defense to indecency with a child is narrower and includes an opposite-sex requirement and a bar on force, threat or duress.

Child cases frequently start with an outcry, the first thing a child tells an adult. Under Article 38.072 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the first adult other than the accused who heard the child describe the offense can repeat it in court, provided the State gives notice by the 14th day before the proceeding and the judge finds the statement reliable. A recorded forensic interview often exists before any arrest. We examine what the interviewer asked, what the child had already been told, who else had spoken with the child and whether the account changed. Child cases can also bring a charge of injury to a child or a Department of Family and Protective Services investigation, and each track can affect the other.

Internet Sex Crimes, Sexting and Online Stings

Section 33.021 covers online solicitation of a minor. An adult of 17 or older who sends sexually explicit messages to a minor over the internet, by text or through an online service, intending to commit certain sex offenses, commits a third-degree felony, raised to a second-degree felony when the minor is under 14 or is believed to be. Asking a minor to meet for sexual contact is a second-degree felony. Under the statute a minor is anyone under 17 or anyone the accused believes is under 17. That wording explains the stings: an officer posing as a 14-year-old online can support a charge even though no child exists. If the offense takes place in school hours and the accused knew or should have known the minor was a student, the punishment goes up a level.

Defenses grow out of the conversation itself: who began it, what was said about age, whether the messages show intent to commit an offense and how much the officer pushed. Section 8.06 of the Penal Code makes entrapment a defense where an agent induced the conduct with means likely to cause persons to commit the offense, although simply offering the chance is not enough. For the meeting charge, it is a defense that the accused was married to the minor or was within three years of the minor’s age and the minor consented, and the meeting does not have to occur for the offense to be complete. Teenagers who exchange images fall under Section 43.261, normally a Class C misdemeanor with a defense for close-in-age dating partners. Adults are charged under the child pornography laws.

Child Pornography and Obscene Visual Material

Under Section 43.26 it is a felony to knowingly possess, or to access intending to view, visual material of a child under 18 engaged in sexual conduct. The person must know what the material shows. Basic possession is a third-degree felony and moves up a grade with more images, prior convictions and other aggravating facts. Promotion, or possession intended for promotion, begins at second-degree. Conviction means registration for life. Section 43.25, sexual performance by a child, reaches anyone who induces or directs a child to take part in a performance, and it is punished more heavily.

Section 43.235 is new, effective September 1, 2025. It creates a state jail felony for possessing, accessing to view or promoting obscene visual material that appears to show a child, a rule that covers cartoons and artificial intelligence images, with higher grades after prior convictions. That same legislative session altered how many images raise the grade of a possession case and lengthened some limitations periods. For that reason the date of the alleged conduct matters.

These cases come down to the device. Who owned it and who else could reach it, how and when the files arrived, whether the person knew they existed, whether any file was opened and whether the person in the image was a real minor are the usual questions. Shared accounts, peer-to-peer downloads, automatic cloud backups and deleted files that remain on a drive can each raise a question about knowledge and control. We read the warrant, the forensic image and the examiner’s report, and an independent examiner can test the State’s conclusions where the case calls for it.

Teachers, Coaches and Students

Section 21.12 makes sexual contact or intercourse between an employee of a public or private primary or secondary school and an enrolled student a second-degree felony. That is true for a student at the employee’s own school, a student at a different school or a student taking part in a school-sponsored activity, and the statute adds online solicitation of those students. It covers school positions defined by the Education Code whether or not the person holds a certificate, and the student’s consent is not an element. Only two affirmative defenses exist: marriage, and an age gap of three years or less where the relationship started before the person worked at the school.

The criminal case is only part of the exposure. A district can suspend or terminate an employee, and the Texas Education Agency can act on a teaching certificate. College and university students in the Austin area can face a separate campus process, and our campus sexual misconduct investigations page explains how those proceedings relate to a criminal case. Statements made in a school or campus interview can be used in court, so talk with a lawyer before giving one.

Prostitution, Solicitation and Trafficking

Prostitution, defined in Section 43.02 as offering or agreeing to take a fee for sexual conduct, starts as a Class B misdemeanor. One or two earlier convictions make it Class A, and three or more make it a state jail felony. Being the victim of trafficking or compelling prostitution is a defense. The buyer is prosecuted under Section 43.021, solicitation of prostitution, which has been a state jail felony since 2021 and a third-degree felony after a prior conviction. It becomes a second-degree felony if the person solicited is under 18, is said to be or is believed to be, and within 1,000 feet of a school or school event it rises another level. When it reaches second-degree, the conviction is reportable for registration.

Undercover contact, usually set up through an online ad or text, starts most of these cases. The questions are what was offered, what the officer said, whether the officer drove the conduct and whether the arrest and any search were lawful. Trafficking of persons, in Section 20A.02, is a different order of charge. It is a second-degree felony at its basic level and a first-degree felony in several settings, among them a child or disabled victim. Compelling prostitution (Section 43.05) and aggravated promotion (Section 43.04) are felonies that require registration. The Legislature revised provisions here in both 2023 and 2025, so conduct dates matter, and federal agents frequently investigate trafficking too.

Indecent Assault, Exposure and Related Offenses

Section 22.012, indecent assault, targets nonconsensual touching of another person’s anus, breast or genitals, exposure of the person, or causing contact with bodily fluids, when done to arouse or gratify sexual desire. The basic offense is a Class A misdemeanor, with up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine. A prior conviction, or a health care or mental health provider acting outside accepted practices during treatment, makes it a state jail felony. Indecent assault does not itself appear on the list of registrable offenses, although a case charged or resolved under another section might. A misdemeanor lawyer in Austin at our firm can explain how Class A cases move through the county courts.

Section 21.08, indecent exposure, requires exposing the anus or genitals to arouse or gratify sexual desire while reckless about whether someone who would be offended or alarmed is nearby. It is a Class B misdemeanor, graded higher for repeat offenders. Public lewdness, voyeurism and invasive visual recording are related charges whose penalties were recently changed, and we check the offense date. Prosecutors also file aggravated kidnapping with intent to sexually violate or abuse a person, and burglary of a habitation with intent to commit a sexual offense, both first-degree felonies. A charge of family violence can be added where the complainant is a spouse or partner, as our Austin domestic violence attorney page explains.

Federal Sex Crime Charges in Austin

The Western District of Texas, Austin Division, hears federal sex offense prosecutions that involve the internet, interstate travel or federal property. Under 18 U.S.C. Section 2422(b), enticing a minor carries 10 years to life, and an undercover chat can be enough. Section 2252 sets 5 to 20 years for receiving or distributing child pornography and up to 10 for basic possession, with higher ranges after prior convictions or for younger children. Section 1591, covering sex trafficking of a minor or by force, fraud or coercion, carries 10 or 15 years at minimum, depending on the facts.

Cases may move from state to federal court or the other way. Federal prosecutions typically follow a long task force investigation, forensic review of devices and a grand jury indictment, and the sentencing guidelines often decide the outcome. A federal agent who contacts you may be told you will answer questions only with a lawyer present.

Sex Offender Registration in Texas

Chapter 62 of the Code of Criminal Procedure sets up the registration program, and it applies after a reportable conviction or adjudication, deferred adjudication included. Registrants are listed on a public Department of Public Safety registry, must check in with local law enforcement, verify their information on a schedule and report moves and job changes. The length depends on the offense. A sexually violent offense (sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, continuous sexual abuse, indecency with a child by contact, sexual performance by a child) brings registration for life, as does possession or promotion of child pornography and certain trafficking and compelling prostitution offenses. Other reportable offenses, online solicitation of a minor among them, carry a duty that ends 10 years after the latest of release, discharge from supervision, or dismissal and discharge.

Not complying with registration is its own crime under Article 62.102. The grade is a state jail felony for 10-year registrants, a third-degree felony for lifetime registrants who verify once a year and a second-degree felony for those who verify every 90 days, one level higher after a repeat violation. Registration can also restrict where someone lives, works and volunteers, and supervision conditions often limit contact with children and internet use. Because identical conduct can sometimes be resolved under a section that does or does not require registration, we weigh the registration result of every possible outcome before discussing a plea.

Punishment, Probation and Time Limits

Punishment in Texas is set by grade, and the grade of a sex offense turns on the section, the other person’s age and the facts alleged. These are the basic ranges, and our Austin felony attorney page explains how felony ranges work.

• Aggravated sexual assault: a first-degree felony, five to 99 years or life.
• Sexual assault, touching a child, and the educator offense: second-degree felonies, two to 20 years.
• Exposure to a child, and basic child pornography possession: third-degree felonies, two to 10 years.
• Basic solicitation of prostitution: a state jail felony, 180 days to two years.
• Basic indecent assault: a Class A misdemeanor, up to a year in jail.

Every felony grade also allows a fine of up to $10,000, and a Class A misdemeanor allows up to $4,000.

Community supervision is restricted. Article 42A.054 bars a judge from ordering it after a conviction for sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault or indecency with a child, along with other listed offenses. Whether a jury may recommend it, and whether deferred adjudication is available, depends on the charge and the person’s record, which we examine first. Our article on deferred adjudication in Texas explains that option. Where supervision is granted the conditions are strict in sex cases, and a violation can bring a motion to revoke, discussed on our Austin probation lawyer page. Parole and mandatory supervision are limited for many sex offenses as well, and as of September 1, 2025 a judge may stack sentences for separate sexual assault and aggravated sexual assault convictions from one episode no matter the victim’s age.

Several serious sexual offenses have no limitations period at all, among them sexual assault or aggravated sexual assault of a child, continuous sexual abuse of a young child and indecency with a child, so an allegation made years later can still lead to a charge. Other offenses are subject to fixed periods, often counted from the alleged victim’s 18th birthday, and the 2025 session changed those again. For sexual assault of an adult the usual period is ten years, with an exception where biological evidence was never tested. Dates are the first thing we check.

From Arrest to Court in Travis County

After an arrest, a magistrate sets bail and gives the required warnings. In a sex offense case, bond conditions often include no contact with the complainant or with minors, GPS monitoring or limits on internet use, and a magistrate can issue an emergency protective order after an arrest for a sexual assault offense. A violation can send you back to jail. Our article on what happens at arraignment in Texas explains the next step.

Misdemeanors in Travis County are prosecuted by the County Attorney’s Office and heard in the county courts at law. Felonies are prosecuted by the District Attorney’s Office, presented to a grand jury (see grand jury indictment) and, once indicted, assigned to one of the county’s nine criminal district courts, which the county lists as the 147th, 167th, 299th, 331st, 390th, 403rd, 427th, 450th and 460th. They sit in the Blackwell-Thurman Criminal Justice Center on West 11th Street. Our article on felony cases in Travis County describes how those dockets work. Cases that arise in nearby Williamson or Hays County follow the same general steps in those counties’ courts.

How We Build a Sex Crime Defense

We treat these allegations, and everyone they touch, with respect. Our work is to hold the State to its burden and protect the rights of the person accused.

• Investigate early. Witness interviews, preserved messages, video and location data, records requests and, where it helps, a visit to the scene.
• Test the forensic evidence. Lab reports, exam records and device extractions get checked for gaps and for conclusions the data cannot support.
• Challenge how evidence was gathered. We review warrants, consent searches, interviews and recorded statements against the law.
• Study the account. We compare every version of the allegation, the timeline and any motive, with care for everyone involved.
• Measure the stakes. Before any plea we set the sentence, the registration result, the effect on custody and work and the odds at trial side by side.

Cases end in different ways. A grand jury might refuse to indict, the State might dismiss as its evidence weakens or after a successful motion, a charge might be reduced to an offense that carries no registration, a plea might be negotiated where the law allows it, or a jury might decide. No lawyer can promise which, and we do not advise a plea until we have read the file and measured it against the exposure.

Consequences Beyond the Sentence

A sex offense charge reaches many parts of life, often before any verdict.

• Family court. A court deciding conservatorship must consider evidence of sexual abuse under Section 153.004 of the Family Code. Credible evidence of a history or pattern of it can rule out joint managing conservatorship and lead to restricted or supervised possession. An Austin child custody lawyer at our firm can coordinate that case with the criminal one.
• Work and licenses. Teachers, nurses, counselors and other licensed professionals may face a report to the board. See our article on being arrested with a professional license.
• Military service. A service member can face the military justice system and the civilian courts, a subject our military defense lawyer in Austin page covers.
• Housing and school. Landlords and housing programs often screen for these offenses, and students can face campus discipline.
• Immigration. A conviction for some sex offenses can lead to removal. Tell your lawyer about your status before any plea, and talk with an immigration lawyer.

Clearing Your Record After a Sex Offense Case

An expunction may be available when a charge is dismissed, a grand jury declines to indict or a jury acquits. Orders of nondisclosure, which seal certain convictions and deferred adjudications, cannot be used for offenses that require registration, and Texas excludes other categories too. What you qualify for depends on the offense and the way the case ended. Our expungement lawyer in Austin page explains the process, and our guides to Texas expunction and nondisclosure under Chapter 411 cover the rules.

Why Austin Clients Choose Barton & Associates for Sex Crime Defense

Someone facing a sex offense accusation in Travis County needs a lawyer who reads everything the State has, does not assume guilt and is willing to go to trial. Our role is to represent the accused and to make the prosecution prove its case. Gary J. Barton founded the firm after serving as a Capital Murder prosecutor. He is Board Certified in Criminal Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and has taken more than 100 cases to a jury. Jim Erickson, a senior trial attorney in our Austin office, has defended criminal cases in Texas since 1985 and has more than 250 jury verdicts in more than sixty counties. Duane Graeff, the managing attorney, has appeared in Texas state and federal courts for more than 26 years. The firm’s other criminal defense trial attorneys work alongside them. The State Bar of Texas directory lets you confirm any lawyer’s license and board certification, ours included.

• Evidence before pleas. The messages, the timeline, the forensic results and the circumstances of each statement get reviewed before anyone talks about a deal.
• The full cost of each result. You are told the realistic range for the charge and how every possible outcome affects registration, custody, employment and licenses.
• Confidentiality. What you share with us stays with us. In return, we ask that you not discuss the accusation with anyone else, online or in person.
• Plain talk about results. Nobody can promise how a case will end, and we do not try.

Our Austin office is at 316 W 12th Street, Suite 400, Austin, Texas 78701, and clients meet with us there by appointment. Directions to our office are a click away. If you have some of the items below, bring them. If you have none, call anyway.

• Paper from the case: a warrant, summons, bond papers or a business card left by a detective.
• A private written timeline of dates, places and people, meant only for your lawyer.
• Your phone, accounts and messages as they are now. Do not delete anything, and do not write to the complainant.
• A protective order, a Department of Family and Protective Services letter, or a notice from your school or employer.
• Anything showing earlier arrests or cases.
• The next date that matters, such as a court setting, a bond condition or a request to sit for an interview.

Frequently Asked Questions About Sex Crimes in Austin

How does aggravated sexual assault differ from sexual assault in Texas?

The added word means an added fact. Sexual assault (Section 22.011) is a second-degree felony, two to 20 years. Aggravated sexual assault (Section 22.021) is a first-degree felony, five to 99 years or life, and the State must prove at least one aggravating circumstance on top of the assault: a weapon, serious injury, a threat, a second participant, a drug, or a complainant who is a child under 14 or is elderly or disabled. Because that extra fact is its own element, it gives the defense its own point to fight.

What do first-degree, second-degree and third-degree felonies mean for a sex offense?

Each degree is a punishment bracket: five to 99 years or life for the first, two to 20 years for the second and two to 10 years for the third, with a fine of up to $10,000 at each level. A state jail felony is 180 days to two years. Which bracket applies comes from the statute and the facts, including the age of the other person, so offenses that sound alike can fall in very different places.

At what age can someone consent in Texas, and is statutory rape a crime?

Seventeen is the age of consent. The label statutory rape does not appear in Texas law. A sexual act with someone under 17 is prosecuted as sexual assault of a child or indecency with a child, or as aggravated sexual assault when the child is under 14. Believing the child was older does not excuse it. Marriage and a narrow close-in-age rule can matter in some cases, depending on the exact ages and dates.

Does Texas have a close-in-age exception for teenagers?

Yes, a limited one. Under Section 22.011(e) it is an affirmative defense if the other person was 14 or older, the accused was within three years of age and was not a person required to register, and the remaining statutory conditions were met. The defense must first present some evidence, and then the State has to disprove it beyond a reasonable doubt. A child under 14 is outside it. Indecency with a child has a separate and narrower version.

What should I do if the accusation against me is false?

Stay away from the accuser, ask no one else to reach out and say nothing publicly. Leave every message, photo and record untouched. Speak to a lawyer first and the police second. We start by building our own timeline and reviewing the messages between the two people, the forensic work and why the account was told or changed when it was. Pressing a complainant to drop the matter can create a new charge or a bond violation.

How long would I have to register as a sex offender?

Registration depends on the offense of conviction or deferred adjudication. A sexually violent offense, meaning sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, continuous sexual abuse, indecency with a child by touching or sexual performance by a child, requires registration for life. So does child pornography possession or promotion. Some lesser reportable offenses, such as online solicitation of a minor, end after 10 years from release or discharge. A failure to comply is a felony itself, which is why we weigh each possible resolution against its registration consequences.

Should I talk to Austin police or a detective if they contact me?

You may decline and ask for a lawyer. Tell the officer calmly that you will not answer questions without counsel, refuse consent to search your phone and do not try to explain yourself. Statements made to clear things up are often the strongest evidence the State will ever have. Do not delete anything. Phone us before agreeing to any interview if at all possible.

If the accuser wants to drop the charges, will the case end?

No, the decision rests with the prosecutor. Cases can proceed on messages, medical records, recordings and other witnesses. A shift in the accuser’s account may still matter, and counsel can present it to the State properly. Contacting the accuser yourself to ask for that shift can produce a new charge and a bond violation.

Is an internet sex crime charge possible when the minor was really a police officer?

It is. Section 33.021 applies to anyone 17 or older who sends sexually explicit messages to a minor online, or asks a minor to meet for sexual contact, and it treats a person the accused believes is under 17 as a minor. Officers posing as teenagers therefore generate real felony cases. Entrapment, no intent to commit an offense and the statute’s own definitions are common defenses, and each rests on the chat logs and the officer’s conduct.

How are child pornography and exploitation cases put together?

Many start when an online service reports an account or an undercover chat leads to a warrant. Investigators then seize devices and accounts and examine them forensically. We look at the warrant, who else used the device, when and how files arrived, whether you knew they were there and how the examiner reached each conclusion. Sexual performance by a child, a separate offense, concerns inducing or directing a child into a performance. Some of these laws were amended in 2025, so the date of the conduct counts.

What are the penalties for prostitution and for paying for sex?

Prostitution begins as a Class B misdemeanor, becomes Class A with one or two priors and is a state jail felony with three or more. A buyer is charged with solicitation under Section 43.021, a state jail felony since 2021 at its base level, third-degree after a prior conviction and second-degree if the person solicited is under 18 or believed to be. Anyone who was a trafficking victim may have a defense to the prostitution charge.

Could my case be prosecuted in federal court as well as Texas court?

Yes, especially if the internet, travel across state lines or federal property was involved. Federal law sets 10 years to life for enticing a minor (18 U.S.C. Section 2422(b)), 5 to 20 years for receiving or distributing child pornography (Section 2252) and a floor of 10 or 15 years for sex trafficking offenses (Section 1591). Parallel state and federal proceedings happen, and we evaluate both from the first meeting.

What does a sex crime accusation do to custody of my children?

Under Family Code Section 153.004, a court deciding conservatorship has to consider evidence of sexual abuse. Credible evidence of a history or pattern of it can bar joint managing conservatorship and support restricted or supervised possession, and the Department of Family and Protective Services may open its own inquiry. Statements in one case can surface in the other, so we coordinate the criminal and family matters.

How much time does a case take, and what will it cost me?

The answer varies. Investigations sometimes run for months before a charge is filed, and a felony that goes through a grand jury, pretrial motions and possibly a trial lasts longer. Think months, not weeks. Fees follow the charge, the volume of evidence and whether the case is tried. We go over our fees and the probable steps in the free consultation, and every file is prepared on the assumption that it may be tried.

Talk With a Sex Crimes Attorney in Austin About Your Case

Evidence is easiest to preserve early, and charging decisions can come quickly. Speak with a criminal defense attorney in Austin at Barton & Associates about the allegation, what officers have told you and how to handle further questions.

Call our Austin office at 512-THE-FIRM (843-3476) or use the online Free Consultation form to set up a confidential meeting. We are at 316 W 12th Street, Suite 400, Austin, Texas 78701, and on-site consultations are by appointment only.

Main Category: Criminal Defense Austin
Barton & Associates, Attorneys at Law
316 W 12th St Suite 400, Austin, TX 78701
Office: 512-THE-FIRM (843-3476)