This is a common question that a lot of my clients ask whether they’ve been charged with a crime or not. And the truth of the matter is that you can be charged with a crime, whether there’s physical evidence or not.

In fact, most of our cases involve allegations that don’t have physical evidence. Physical evidence could be an injury or DNA or some sort of bodily fluid. And most of the time, our clients have cases that don’t involve any of that.

In Michigan, there’s a jury instruction that says that a person can be convicted of a sex crime, even with no corroborating physical evidence. This means that if a jury believes the complainant or the person accusing my client or our client, the complainant’s allegation does not have to be corroborated by physical evidence.

Their statement alone can be enough to convict somebody, if the jury believes their statement.