Houston Sexual Assault Lawyer — The Accusation Is Not the Evidence

Michael D. Mercer — Experienced Sexual Assault Lawyer

For over a decade, sexual assault lawyer Michael D. Mercer has provided aggressive criminal defense for those facing sexual assault charges in and around Houston, Texas. Sexual assault is a very serious offense with dire consequences for those accused. Anyone charged with sexual assault should consult with an experienced criminal attorney immediately to discuss their case and preserve any defenses they may have. If you or someone you know is charged with sexual assault or any other sex crime, contact an experienced Houston sexual assault lawyer at Mercer Law for a free 24/7 consultation: (713) 208-7682.

Sexual Assault Attorney Michael Mercer Handles All Sex Crimes

Attorney Michael Mercer defends the following sex crimes:

Aggravated Sexual Assault · Failure to Register as a Sex Offender · Indecent Exposure · Indecency with a Child · Internet Sex Crimes · Online Solicitation of a Minor · Possession of Child Pornography · Prostitution · Solicitation of Prostitution · Public Lewdness · Rape · Sexual Assault · Sexual Assault of a Child · Statutory Rape

Somewhere in Houston tonight, a detective’s desk phone is dialing someone who doesn’t know what’s happening yet. A business card left at a workplace. A voicemail asking a person to “come in and talk.” A phone ringing from the person involved — a conversation that isn’t a conversation. That’s how these cases start. Quietly, and long before the handcuffs.

We have written this before, and we are writing it again here because nothing has changed except the law around it: most people presume guilt when someone is accused of a sex crime. Our founding attorney’s published line carries the weight better than any slogan could — and the counterweight belongs to the system itself. In FY2025, Texas courts disposed of 1,921 felony sexual-assault cases involving adult complainants: 824 were dismissed against 540 convictions — dismissals outnumbered convictions, by the State’s own bookkeeping (Office of Court Administration). The presumption runs one way in the hallway. The burden runs the other way in the courtroom.

Here’s the burden, exactly: §2.01 of the Texas Penal Code presumes you innocent and requires the State to prove every element of the exact charge, beyond a reasonable doubt. And §22.011’s engine phrase — “without consent” — is not a feeling. It is a fixed list of circumstances, most of which the State has to prove the accused knew. A private evening becomes a file through one person’s memory. A checklist is where it’s fought.

The building it all runs through is 1201 Franklin Street downtown — sixteen misdemeanor courts, twenty-nine felony district courts, the whole Harris County criminal machine under one roof. Our office is at 917 Franklin, three blocks away — a four-minute walk we’ve made for over 3,000 cases since 2012, the vast majority dismissed. Michael D. Mercer began his career at the Harris County DA’s office. He knows how the intake decision is made because he worked inside it.

Everything you share is protected by attorney–client privilege from the first word. Nobody has to know you called.

Free, confidential, any hour: (713) 208-7682. The lawyer who answers is the lawyer who appears. Se habla español.

What Counts as Sexual Assault Under Texas Penal Code §22.011

“(a) A person commits an offense if: (1) the person intentionally or knowingly: (A) causes the penetration of the anus or sexual organ of another person by any means, without that person’s consent; (B) causes the penetration of the mouth of another person by the sexual organ of the actor, without that person’s consent; or (C) causes the sexual organ of another person, without that person’s consent, to contact or penetrate the mouth, anus, or sexual organ of another person, including the actor…”
— TEX. PENAL CODE §22.011(a)(1) (current through the 89th Legislature, 2nd C.S., 2025)

Every clause in that definition is an element — the act, the mental state, and the absence of consent — and every element is the State’s to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. Subsection (a)(2) covers a child complainant, where consent is not an element at all.

THE WINDOW · BEFORE THERE IS A CHARGE

The Window — What Happens Before Anyone Is Arrested

This section exists because the most valuable weeks of a sexual-assault defense happen before the charge ever exists — and because almost nobody writes about that.

The script, in its own quotes. “We just want to hear your side of the story.” “We just need to clear some things up.” Those phrases are published in our own materials because we’ve heard what follows them for fourteen years: they are not invitations. They are evidence collection, running on a clock the person answering can’t see. Investigators in Texas do not owe you candor in an interview, and the report that comes out the other side will not read like your memory of it.

The call that isn’t what it looks like. Sometimes the person involved calls you directly. Understand that call for what it legally can be. Texas Penal Code §16.02 makes the interception of a communication a second-degree felony — and then carves out the lanes that decide everything here: under §16.02(c)(4)(A), a person not acting under color of law may intercept where “the person is a party to the communication,” and under §16.02(c)(3)(A), a person acting under color of law may intercept where the person “is a party to the communication or if one of the parties to the communication has given prior consent to the interception” (TEX. PENAL CODE §16.02 — current through the 89th Legislature, 2nd C.S., 2025). One-party consent is Texas law. A recorded call, prompted and guided by a detective, is lawful — and the words heard on it become the State’s file. You are under no obligation to return a call. The moment to understand your options is before it.

Illustration, clearly labeled as one: a young professional goes home to a Midtown apartment after an evening along Washington Avenue. On Thursday a detective’s card appears at his office downtown; that night, an old number rings his phone twice — once from 713, once unanswered. Neither moment feels like a case. Both are the case.

What counsel does inside the window is unglamorous and decisive: a full timeline interview, first-told-witness mapping, preservation of devices, messages, medical timelines — never deletion; destruction reads worse than content — counsel-first contact with anyone in the system, and the other half of the file presented to the intake line and the grand-jury screen before the accusation hardens into an indictment. Every statement the police take is theirs to use. The lawyer is the one conversation they can’t touch.

And a note for who usually calls us first: often it isn’t the accused — it’s a mother who got called at work in Humble, a spouse holding the question at midnight while the ride home crawls the 610 Loop. If that’s you, two safe things to say tonight. Calls from custody are recorded. Tell your person only this — say nothing about the case, and wait for the lawyer. The free consult answers the rest.

Bring us the card, the voicemail, the text thread — before you answer any of them. The consultation costs nothing and it’s ours alone: (713) 208-7682, or start with the one conversation they can’t touch.

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THE REGISTRY · THE RECORD

The Real Stakes — the Registry, the Record, and the Deferred Trap — Penalties for Sexual Assault in Texas

People ask about years. The honest first answer about stakes isn’t years — it’s the registry.

Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Chapter 62 defines what registers, and its own words contain the sentence every reader deserves before any plea negotiation begins:

“‘Reportable conviction or adjudication’ means a conviction or adjudication, including an adjudication of delinquent conduct or a deferred adjudication, that, regardless of the pendency of an appeal, is a conviction for or an adjudication for or based on: (A) a violation of Section 21.02, 21.03, 21.09, 21.11, 21.15, 22.011, 22.021, or 25.02…”
— TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. ART. 62.001(5) (current through the 89th Legislature, 2nd C.S., 2025)

Read the middle of that sentence again: including a deferred adjudication. On these charges, the “no conviction” outcome does not avoid the registry. Any lawyer who prices a deferred without saying that sentence first has priced it wrong.

Then the machinery, plainly: registration for these convictions is for life under art. 62.101 — public database listing, annual verification duties, a seven-day clock to register on arrival anywhere you intend to stay (art. 62.051), licensing-authority notifications run through DPS (art. 62.005(e)), and no pause while an appeal pends (art. 62.002). The Legislature touched this chapter four separate times in 2025. Narrow statutory exits exist in limited near-age cases; the judgment drives the answer — which is exactly why the judgment must be the first document anyone reads.

The record half. A conviction on a reportable offense can never be sealed — that’s not our caution, it’s Gov’t Code §411.074(b)(1)‘s wall. But a dismissed, no-billed, or acquitted case can be expunged under the recodified Chapter 55A (in force January 1, 2025) — destroyed, not hidden, with a legal right at the end to deny the arrest happened at all. Which produces the sentence this whole page stands on: the record’s ending is decided at the case’s beginning. The registry fight and the case fight are the same fight.

Collateral truth, compactly: for non-citizen readers, these outcomes can trigger deportation lanes — that conversation happens in the first consult, coordinated with immigration counsel, never improvised. For anyone holding a professional license, the licensing board’s question is the record question.

And a line for the reader on this page for a different reason: if someone you love is the person who was harmed, the Houston Area Women’s Center answers free, confidential, 24/7 at 1-800-256-0551. That resource belongs in the world regardless of what your evening looks like.

The record’s one clean exit, mapped in full: the record’s one clean exit — expunction after a win.

Expungements →

WHERE THE CHECKLIST BREAKS

Where These Cases Break — False Accusations of Sex Crimes — Defenses to a Sexual Assault Charge

False accusations of sex crimes and sexual assault can ruin a person’s life. A sex crime conviction can mean lengthy prison sentences and lifetime registration as a sex offender, not to mention the loss of respect among your peers. No criminal charge comes with a stronger presumption of guilt than does a sex crime.

Most people presume guilt when someone is accused of a sex crime, assuming that children and other victims would never falsely accuse someone of a sexual assault charge. In reality, false accusations of sex crimes occur more often than courts would like to admit. An innocent person falsely accused of sexual assault should contact an experienced sexual assault attorney immediately. Many sex crimes can be dismissed after prompt and diligent investigation.

These cases run on memory and machinery. The checklist is what stands between them. Five breaks — each one we’ve used, each one statute-anchored:

1. The State must prove what was known — not what happened after. Unconsciousness, incapacity, impairment: the (b) list’s knowledge elements have to be proven with evidence outside one person’s memory — messages before and after, the timeline, the ride home up I-45 or across town inside the Loop, the ride-share receipt, the witnesses. A person can be wrong about an evening. The State has to prove the knowledge beyond a reasonable doubt.

2. Consent is a defense built from evidence — and only for adults. For an adult-complainant case, the State must fit one of §22.011(b)’s lanes. And when a defense is raised by evidence, the code itself instructs: “the court shall charge that a reasonable doubt on the issue requires that the defendant be acquitted” (§2.03(d)). The instruction is written into the law. So is the preparation that earns it.

3. False accusation has real engines — and they leave artifacts. Custody leverage, a relationship collapsing, regret reframed by family and friends. We don’t wave at tropes; we document motives — texts, timelines, first-told witnesses — early, before the file hardens. We’ve published the same two sentences for years because they’re true: false accusations of sex crimes occur more often than courts would like to admit, and many sex crimes can be dismissed after prompt and diligent investigation.

4. The forensic machinery has rules. The exam, the kit, the chain of custody, the device extractions, the recorded calls, the bodycam from the patrol officers who took the very first call — each is lawful or not, clean or not. One-party calls are lawful under §16.02; device extractions ride on warrants; DNA presence is not participation and absence is not innocence. In the child lanes, the interview machinery has its own technical rules — Texas’s outcry doctrine runs to the first adult told, in more than “a general allusion” (Garcia v. State, 792 S.W.2d 88 (Tex. Crim. App. 1990)) — and broken rules remove testimony. Removed testimony ends cases.

5. The identity answer. Chaotic-scene cases live on identification, and the procedures around photo arrays and lineups have their own statutory protections. Wrong ones break under cross.

Each break ends the same way: find the break in yours — (713) 208-7682. The full taxonomy of this code’s charges and where each one dies: the assault code’s chapters, element by element.

Assault charges in houston the 18 we defend how each dies →

THE MACHINE · HARRIS COUNTY, IN ORDER

If There Is an Arrest — What the Machine Does Next

The scene, for the families holding the phone tonight: booking happens at the Harris County Joint Processing Center, 1200 Baker Street, downtown. From there the law keeps its own schedule.

Magistration, inside 48 hours (CCP art. 15.17): the accusation read, the warnings given — counsel, silence, the right to end any interview, an examining trial, appointed-counsel procedures — and the bail decision. Since 2025’s overhaul, that decision is individualized, made within 48 hours, and built on the least-restrictive conditions that still protect safety (art. 17.028); on this lane of charge the conditions commonly run strict — no-contact orders and monitoring are the practice reality, and they get argued, not accepted.

The grand jury screens every felony. Twelve Harris County citizens, probable cause or nothing — and a no-bill ends the case before any courtroom ever opens. Presenting the defense’s half of the file at intake, before that screen, is exactly what the Window section above is for. This is a decision we know from inside the building: Michael D. Mercer began his career at the Harris County DA’s office, and the intake file has looked the same way to him for fourteen years.

Whoever made the arrest, the file funnels downtown. A detective assigned to these cases inside HPD’s investigative divisions. A Harris County sheriff’s deputy answering a call out in the unincorporated belt — a subdivision off Spring Cypress Road, a street in Spring itself, Cypress along the 290 corridor, Atascocita east of the river. One of the county’s eight constable precincts serving a felony warrant anywhere inside Beltway 8’s outer ring or far past it. A DPS trooper on a freeway stop that turned into something else. And the city forces: Pasadena police on their own streets along 225, Baytown police out on I-10 East, Humble PD up 59 north near the airport district, Katy PD on the Harris County side of the three-county city. The Bay Area — Clear Lake, Webster — files the same way. Every one of those roads ends at the same address.

Then the address’s anatomy decides the courtroom. The misdemeanor-grade cousin — indecent assault, a Class A under §22.012 — walks into one of the sixteen County Criminal Courts at Law; the felonies go to one of the twenty-nine district courts; all of it at 1201 Franklin Street, three blocks from our door.

The ring counties run their own courthouses — Fort Bend’s courts sit in the Justice Center at Richmond; Montgomery’s district courts run between two buildings in Conroe; Galveston and Brazoria hear theirs in Galveston and Angleton, with the Pearland and League City ends of the 45 and 288 corridors feeding them. Different venue, same doctrine: the checklist is the law in all of them.

The resolution paths, honestly ordered: dismissal — which only the State files, in writing, with the judge’s consent (CCP art. 32.02, a rule unchanged since 1965) — the no-bill, the deferred lanes where they exist (never without the registry sentence from the section above), a plea read against the paper, or trial. And the long-haul honesty: these files commonly run many months, sometimes past a year. The DNA timelines and the dockets both run slow. The time is where the defense gets built.

The hour-by-hour machinery, for whoever’s holding the phone at 2 a.m.: the first 48 hours after a Harris County arrest.

First 48 hours harris county arrest →

THE PROOF · THE NAMES STAY QUIET

Proof That Protects the People It Proves: Client Reviews

On this page you won’t find a client’s worst week displayed like an exhibit. The public words below are what real clients chose to post under their own names. The rest of the record is intentionally quiet — because what matters is what happened next, and because nobody has to know who you are until you decide.

Maria Garza, Google review, her words as posted:

“I’m so thankful for the strong legal defense put together by Michael Mercer and his team. I was falsely accused of a very serious crime and was facing assault charges which could have led to time behind bars and a very serious and nasty stain on my record. Michael Mercer listened to me, understood my situation and was able to effectively manage my case. I can’t believe he was able to not only clear my name, but also prevented me from having to serve any time, pay any fines or even deal with probation. I don’t think many lawyers out there would have been able to do what he did. He soundly defeated my accusers and I couldn’t be happier with his work. I got a New York level legal defense with a Humble, TX price tag.”

TERRENCE McCONN — the trial-day ending, in his posted words: “The prosecutor dismissed all charges on the day of trial and I couldn’t be happier with the Houston criminal defense attorneys at Mercer & Keirnan.”

THE ANSWERING VOICE. In a published reply to a wrongfully-accused client, Mercer wrote: “This was a case where somebody lied to get my client in trouble. We fought hard from the beginning, eventually setting the case for trial. Before the trial, the state dismissed all charges after we showed them proof that the ‘victim’ was not being truthful. I love this job!” — the false-accusation machinery, in the lawyer’s own written words.

The stat band: 4.9★ · 117 Google reviews · 45 written owner responses · a repeat courtroom winner on the independent record, 2021–2026. And a deliberate choice: our docket shows cause-numbered outcomes across the violent-family lanes — and on this lane we show none, because on this page privacy is a feature. Prior results do not guarantee outcomes.

Read the voices yourself: all 117 reviews.

Testimonials →

BEFORE YOU ANSWER ANYONE’S CALL · EXPERIENCED SEXUAL ASSAULT LAWYER · AVAILABLE 24/7

A Detective’s Business Card Is Not a Verdict — When to Hire a Sexual Assault Attorney

As soon as you or a loved one learns that he or she has been accused of sexual assault, it is time to hire a sexual assault attorney. It is important that you speak with an experienced criminal attorney before speaking with the police. The police may encourage you to make incriminating statements that can be used later against you. If you are getting phone calls from the police regarding a sexual assault allegation, it is time to hire a Houston sexual assault attorney.

Neither is a charge. Both are the State’s version of a beginning — and everything on this page exists because the beginning is where these cases are won.

This week, the machine may only be running quietly: a card on a desk in the Galleria corridor, a voicemail in Katy, a call from a name you know. That is the moment. Preserving the timeline, controlling the narrative channel, and getting counsel between you and the recorder before a single syllable exists in the file — that is how the State’s checklist fails early instead of late. Michael D. Mercer has spent fourteen years on exactly that work in the building three blocks from this office downtown. Fourteen years, zero disciplinary history — the State Bar keeps that record, not us. Flat fees and payment plans are on our official State Bar record, too. And the consult is free, at any hour, in English or Spanish — every word privileged from the first word.

The full map of every charge we defend: every charge we defend — the full defense map.

The phone is answered by the lawyer: (713) 208-7682, any hour, any night. The lawyer who answers is the lawyer who appears — and nobody has to know you called.

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Consult with an Experienced Houston Sexual Assault Lawyer

Do not take the risk of hiring an inexperienced lawyer to defend you against a sexual assault charge or any other sex crime. These cases can be very difficult and require extensive skill and expertise. Throughout his years as a criminal defense attorney since 2012, Michael Mercer has become a prominent sexual assault lawyer and is well known around the courthouse for his knowledge of the law surrounding sex crimes. Consult with experienced Houston Sexual Assault Lawyer Michael Mercer for free and learn how to fight your sex crime charge: (713) 208-7682.

Straight answers

A detective called me — or the person themselves called — “just to get my side.” What should I do?

That moment isn’t a conversation; it’s the case. The “come in and talk” voicemail, the “we just need to clear some things up,” even the recorded call from the person involved — lawful in Texas under one-party consent (Penal Code §16.02) — are evidence collection. You owe nothing today: don’t return the call, don’t answer questions, don’t delete anything, and get counsel between you and the recorder before any exchange. The consult is free and privileged from the first minute.

Can I be convicted on the accuser’s testimony alone — no DNA, no witnesses, nothing else?

Yes — Texas places no universal corroboration requirement between a complainant’s credible testimony and a verdict. That is why these cases are built on consistency and context: every message, call log, ride receipt, and medical timeline around that night. And it’s why the defense gets built early — before one account hardens into the only record. A one-sided file can carry a charge; a complete timeline can break one. Don’t wait for the indictment to start assembling the other half.

Will a sexual assault conviction require sex-offender registration — and for how long?

For life, on these charges. Both §22.011 and §22.021 sit on Chapter 62’s list of reportable convictions, and the code’s own definitional sentence includes “a deferred adjudication” — the registry follows any finding of guilt, and even a deferred outcome is no shield (CCP art. 62.001(5)). Texas requires lifetime registration under art. 62.101, with public-listing, licensing-notification, and verification machinery — and the duty survives appeal (art. 62.002). Narrow statutory exits exist for limited near-age cases; the judgment drives the answer. Get the record read before any deal gets priced.

Can I get probation for sexual assault in Texas?

Read the machine honestly: a judge cannot grant probation on §22.011 or §22.021 — both are on the no-judge-probation list (CCP art. 42A.054(a)). A jury-recommended lane exists inside narrow rails; deferred adjudication is technically available for a first-time §22.011 — and registers anyway (art. 62.001(5)). Anyone who promises “probation” before reading the charging paper is selling, not advising.

The accuser says she’ll drop it — she never wanted charges. Does that end it in Harris County?

No. Once filed, only the State can dismiss — by written motion on the record, with the presiding judge’s consent (CCP art. 32.02, unchanged since 1965). The complainant’s wishes are input, not the decision; Harris County prosecutors move forward without a cooperating complainant whenever the evidence otherwise allows. And recanting carries its own danger — a false-report case opens behind it. Counsel builds the lawful version: exposing what the State cannot complete alone, in the file, on the record.

I was falsely accused. What actually happens to those cases?

The record, stated plainly: in FY2025, 824 of 1,921 disposed adult sexual-assault felonies were dismissed — dismissals outnumbered convictions (42.9% to 28.1%; OCA’s own figures). False accusations have engines — motive, pressure, retold stories — and those engines leave artifacts: texts, timelines, first-told witnesses. The earlier the artifacts are preserved, the sooner the checklist fails. We’ve published it for years because the record keeps proving it: many sex crimes can be dismissed after prompt and diligent investigation — and the work starts before the accusation becomes an indictment.

How long does the State have to file a sexual assault charge?

The ladder, exactly: for the child-lane charges — no limitation period (CCP art. 12.01(1)(B)). For adult sexual assault — ten years, with two no-limit exceptions: where biological evidence was collected and has never tested to a match, and where probable cause exists of the same or similar offense against five or more victims (arts. 12.01(1)(C), 12.01(2)(E)). The newer state-jail assisted-reproduction lane runs two years from discovery (art. 12.01(10)); and an offense titled “aggravated” shares its primary crime’s clock (art. 12.03(d)). The clock question is always a record question first.

We were both drinking — is that enough to charge me?

Sometimes — and this lane moved on September 1, 2025. The current §22.011(b)(6): an act is without consent when the actor knows the other person is intoxicated or impaired “to the extent” they’re incapable of consenting. Two hazy, competing accounts now get read against the statute’s knowledge element — and the State bears the proof of what you knew. Nobody’s evening self-explains. The file tells the truth if the file gets built — the messages, the timeline, the ride home.

I was just arrested on a sexual charge in Houston. What happens now?

Booking at the Joint Processing Center on Baker Street; a magistrate within 48 hours by statute — warnings, rights, the bail decision (arts. 15.17, 17.028). Then the grand jury screens the felony — a no-bill ends it — and assignment runs to one of the twenty-nine felony district courts at 1201 Franklin. The calls from the jail are recorded; say nothing about the case. Whether the arrest came from an HPD detective, a Harris County sheriff’s deputy out of Spring or Cypress, one of the county’s eight constable precincts, or a city force like Pasadena, Baytown, or Humble — it all arrives at the same downtown address, three blocks from our office.

I don’t live in Texas anymore — can this be handled without moving my life?

The logistics, not the work. A Harris County charge gets filed and resolved here regardless of where you go home — and distance doesn’t pause anything. On the public record: a client whose Harris County case was handled while he lived in New York — dismissed; a referral across state lines — full dismissal; a client who moved mid-case — finished and dismissed. In many settings we appear so you don’t have to; which settings is a question we answer only after reading the paper. The courthouse is three blocks from our office — not from yours.

¿Se habla español? — ¿y es confidencial la llamada?

Sí, y sí — ambas están en el registro público: la representación completa en español figura en nuestro perfil oficial del Colegio de Abogados del Estado de Texas, y la consulta es gratis, completamente confidencial, a cualquier hora. Todo lo que usted comparte está protegido por el privilegio abogado-cliente desde la primera palabra. Nadie tiene que saber que llamó; el abogado que contesta es el abogado que aparece en el tribunal: (713) 208-7682.