Soliciting for Prostitutes Charges in Jefferson Parish

Revised Statutes La RS 14:83 is the law that deals with the offense of soliciting for prostitutes in Louisiana. Prostitute solicitation in Jefferson Parish is an offense that is very serious. The consequences are heavy if you are found guilty of this grave offense, this is part of the reasons you need to make sure that you have the best criminal defense attorneys in Jefferson Parish on your side.

Soliciting for Prostitutes happens when you willingly direct, invite, transport or induce a person to any location and you do this for the purpose or with the mindset of promotion of prostitution.

Elements that Makeup Prostitution Solicitation

The crime of soliciting of a prostitute has various components and to prove that this crime has occurred these components must be proved in court, not proving one of these elements is enough to cast reasonable doubt on the case of the person in charge of prosecuting. These components are:

You had the will or intention to acquire a prostitute.

You took the action to transport, direct, invite or induce said prostitute.

You knew the person you were inviting, inducing, transporting was a prostitute.

The reason you did the above-mentioned was that you had the mindset to promote the trade of that person which is prostitution.

You did all of these with your faculties intact.

Examples of Solicitation of Prostitution

You see an advertisement online that someone is willing to have sexual intercourse with you if you are willing to pay the person, you went ahead to call that person and gave the person directions to your house with the intention that after you have sexual intercourse with that person you are going to pay that person.

You and your friends are about to have a party so you all decide to get some girls or some guys that you will have sexual intercourse with, in furtherance of this you all contribute money and go online to advertise that you were going to have a party and you wanted to have people that you would have sexual intercourse with at the party and you were willing to pay, you get messages from people that are interested in your advert and wants to do what you advertised so you send them the directions to your party, you can be found guilty of soliciting of prostitution.

You send your car to a location to bring a person who is willing to have sexual intercourse with you for money to a hotel that you wanted to have sexual intercourse with the person in, you can be found guilty of solicitation of prostitution.

You tell a friend to tell their friends that you were willing to pay them if they allow you to have sexual intercourse with them, they agree, this is solicitation of prostitutes.

In a way solicitation of prostitutes is tantamount to procuring prostitutes or doing things to procure prostitutes.

Penalties for Soliciting Prostitutes

Usually, when you commit a crime there are punishments and penalties that are in place to deter you from them and/or punish you for already committing them, in the case of soliciting prostitutes the possible penalties depend on the circumstances that surround the case in question, these possible penalties are:

You might be imprisoned for up to six months in the first instance, this imprisonment can be with or without a fine.

You can be fined only and the fine will not exceed $500 if you are an offender for the first time.

You can be imprisoned for up to 50 years and at least 15 years with hard labor if the person you solicited is not up to the age of 18, in addition to this you might be fined with up to $50,000. You might be ordered to pay only the fine or both.

If in your case the person you solicited for prostitution is not up to the age of 14 years, you can incur a fine of up to $75,000, you can also be sentenced to prison for up to 50 years with hard labor, and your prison term must be up to 25 years.

You can be ordered to pay the fine even though you have been incarcerated.

You can lose you property if that property was used as a tool for you when you were committing the crime, or the money you got from committing the offense to be seized by the government, your property can be sold to the public or given and used however the law provides.

You can be ordered by the court of law that you should be treated for a sexual disorder like sex addiction compulsory.

As we have seen above solicitation for prostitution can come with very grave consequences if you are found guilty by a court of law, the graveness of the punishment you will incur is linked to your particular circumstance, so will someone might be asked to pay a fine of $500 (five hundred dollars) you might end up being put in prison for up to fifty years and still pay a fine of up to $75,000 (seventy-five thousand dollars) this is why you need to have experienced and seasoned criminal defense attorneys at your side. So, if you are accused of this crime in Gretna, Kenner, Metairie or anywhere else in Jefferson Parish contact Barkemeyer Law firm where you will get access to the top criminal defense attorneys around.

Defenses Against Solicitation for Prostitution

If you are arrested and charged for the crime of soliciting a prostitute there are a number of things and defenses that might be open to you, some of them are:

Entrapment: this can be the argument of your defense attorney; however, it depends on the circumstances of your particular situation or case. Your attorney can get these charges off of you if he can profitably argue entrapment, especially if your case started from the authorities set up the operation that you were caught in. This way the element that you offered or advertised to get a prostitute would not be able to be proven.

False Accusation could be successfully argued by you defense attorney given the situation surrounding your case.

Mistake: you might have been mistaken as to the kind of relationship you were entering with the prostitute.