Indecency With a Child Charges in Collin County

Indecency with a child is the charge Collin County prosecutors bring when the allegation is sexual contact, as the statute defines it, or prohibited exposure involving someone younger than 17. It is a felony in either form. It can carry lifetime sex offender registration, and it has no statute of limitations. The words of the statute matter here, because the two ways it can be committed carry different degrees and different registration periods.

Kent Starr has practiced criminal defense since 1997 and represents people facing indecency charges in Collin County, and he takes these cases throughout Texas. He is a solo lawyer. The consultation is free and confidential, and he takes it himself. If you have been charged, or a detective has called about an allegation like this, call (214) 982-1408. If the accusation has surfaced but nothing has been filed, the accused of child molestation page covers the first days. This page is about the charge itself.

What Texas Penal Code §21.11 Actually Says

Texas Penal Code §21.11 describes two separate offenses under one name. Both require that the other person be a child, which the statute defines as someone younger than 17.

Indecency by contact, subsection (a)(1), is engaging in sexual contact with the child, or causing the child to engage in sexual contact. Indecency by exposure, subsection (a)(2), is exposing the anus or any part of the genitals knowing the child is present, or causing the child to expose, in either case with intent to arouse or gratify sexual desire.

“Sexual contact” has its own definition in subsection (c). It means touching, including touching through clothing, of the child’s anus, breast, or any part of the genitals, or touching any part of the child’s body with the actor’s anus, breast, or genitals, when the touching is done with intent to arouse or gratify sexual desire. Two things in that definition drive a lot of these cases. Contact through clothing counts. And intent is part of the offense: the State has to prove not only that a touch happened, but that it was done with the intent the statute describes.

The statute also says the offense applies “regardless of whether the person knows the age of the child.” Not knowing that someone was under 17 is not, by itself, a defense under §21.11. There is a narrow close-in-age affirmative defense, covered below. Our post on understanding indecency with a child walks through the statute in plainer terms.

What the Charge Carries

Under subsection (d), indecency by contact is a second-degree felony and indecency by exposure is a third-degree felony. A second-degree felony carries 2 to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000 (Penal Code §12.33); a third-degree felony carries 2 to 10 years and a fine of up to $10,000 (§12.34). What surrounds those ranges matters as much as the numbers.

Registration. Indecency by contact is listed as a “sexually violent offense” under Chapter 62 of the Code of Criminal Procedure when the person was 17 or older, and the registration period is life (Article 62.101(a)). Indecency by exposure carries registration for ten years after release or discharge from supervision, and it becomes lifetime if there is any other reportable conviction or adjudication (Article 62.101(c)). Deferred adjudication counts as a reportable adjudication for either subsection.

Probation after conviction. A judge cannot place someone on community supervision after a conviction for either form of indecency with a child (Article 42A.054(a)). A jury may recommend community supervision only if the person has no prior felony conviction and the sentence is ten years or less, and that option is not available at all when the child was younger than 14.

Deferred adjudication. A judge may grant deferred adjudication for §21.11, but only after finding in open court that doing so is in the best interest of the victim (Article 42A.102(a)), and not at all if the person was previously on community supervision for a listed sex offense. Even then, deferred adjudication requires registration. It is a form of community supervision, not a dismissal.

No statute of limitations. Indecency with a child is one of the offenses Texas exempts from any limitations period (Article 12.01(1)). An allegation about something said to have happened many years ago can be charged today.

Repeat offenses. A conviction for indecency by contact carries an automatic life sentence under Penal Code §12.42(c)(2) when the person has a qualifying prior conviction for one of the sex offenses that section lists, including indecency with a child, or a substantially similar offense from another state.

The Close-in-Age Defense and Its Limits

Subsection (b) creates an affirmative defense for a narrow set of cases. Every element has to be present:

• The accused was not more than three years older than the child.
• The accused and the child were of the opposite sex.
• No duress, force, or threat was used against the child.
• At the time of the offense, the accused was not required to register for life under Chapter 62 and had no prior reportable conviction or adjudication under §21.11.

Because it is an affirmative defense, every statutory requirement must be satisfied. The opposite-sex requirement means the defense is not available in every case where the ages would otherwise fit. Subsection (b-1) provides a separate defense where the two people were married. The close-in-age defense to sexual assault of a child under §22.011 is written differently, and the sexual assault of a child page walks through that one.

The defense exists for a narrow age-gap situation, and every requirement has to be met. The age of consent in Texas is 17, and the fact that a 16-year-old agreed to something is not a defense to indecency with a child. If this is your situation, our post on teenagers charged with statutory rape in Texas covers the details.

How These Cases Come Up in Collin County

Many indecency with a child cases in Collin County begin with an outcry: a child says something to a parent, a teacher, a school counselor, or a doctor, and that person makes a report. From there, two investigations often open at once. CPS opens a civil case focused on the child’s safety, and a police agency, in McKinney, Plano, Frisco, Allen, or the sheriff’s office, opens a criminal one. The two share information.

The child is typically interviewed on video at a children’s advocacy center by a trained forensic interviewer while detectives and CPS observe. That recording often becomes central to the State’s case, and the person under investigation is not told it is happening. Some time later a detective calls and asks the accused to come in and talk. That call is an interview request, and the right answer is that you would like to speak with your attorney first.

When the detective finishes, the file goes to the Collin County District Attorney’s office, which decides what to charge. Felony cases are ordinarily presented to a grand jury, and if the grand jury indicts, the case is heard in one of the district courts at the Russell A. Steindam Courts Building, 2100 Bloomdale Road in McKinney. That is where a case from Plano, Frisco, or Allen ends up as well, because Collin County’s district courts sit in McKinney. The Collin County criminal defense guide covers the courts and bond in more detail.

The pre-charge period is covered elsewhere on this site. The CPS and police investigation page covers the CPS track and the forensic interview, and the accused of child molestation page covers the first days after an accusation and what it means to be asked to leave the home. If you are in that window, start there.

What the Defense Actually Looks At

The defense in an indecency with a child case is not a story about why the allegation was made. It is an examination of what the State can prove, element by element, and of how the evidence was gathered. That is what a Collin County jury is asked to decide.

The elements. Did the touching described happen at all? If some contact happened, was it “sexual contact” as the statute defines it, including the intent to arouse or gratify? Contact that happens in ordinary caregiving or by accident is not the offense unless the intent element is present, and the State carries the burden on that element. Was the person accused the person involved, and could they have been where the account places them, when it places them there? Each of those is a question of proof.

The forensic interview. Because the recorded interview usually carries the most weight, it gets the closest review: whether the interviewer followed protocol, how questions were framed, the sequence of any prior interviews, and how they were conducted. Our post on the forensic interview of a child explains how these interviews are conducted.

Physical and medical evidence, or its absence. Indecency cases may involve little or no physical evidence. Where a medical exam was done, what it found and what it did not find are reviewed against the account.

Digital evidence. Phones, messages, photos, location history, and account records can fix people in time and place. They can corroborate an account or contradict it, and they need to be preserved and examined rather than assumed. If a phone or computer was seized, the scope of the warrant and the attribution of what was found (who actually used the device, and when) are part of the review. Where the facts warrant it, the defense can retain independent forensic-interview reviewers and digital examiners.

Statements and searches. How any statement from the accused was obtained matters: whether it was recorded, whether the person was in custody, whether warnings were given, and whether the person had asked for a lawyer. The same review applies to consent searches and to warrants. Where a statement or a search may have been obtained in violation of the rules, the defense evaluates whether a motion to suppress is supported.

Deferred Adjudication, Plea Decisions, and Registration

In most felony cases, the central question in negotiation is the number of years. In an indecency with a child case there is a second question that matters as much: whether the disposition is a reportable one under Chapter 62. Any conviction for §21.11 requires registration, and so does deferred adjudication. Indecency by contact means lifetime registration when the person was 17 or older; indecency by exposure means ten years after release or discharge, or lifetime if anything else reportable is on the record. Registration follows a person into where they can live and work, and it is the reason the reportable-disposition question drives strategy in these cases.

A plea to the charged offense, even one that avoids prison through deferred adjudication, is still a reportable adjudication. Whether any other disposition is available depends on the evidence and on the Collin County District Attorney’s office, and no lawyer can promise one. What Kent does is evaluate the case and tell you what each option carries, in sentence and in registration, before any decision has to be made. Our posts on probation eligibility in child sex cases and what happens on the Texas sex offender registry go deeper on both.

Deferred adjudication itself deserves a clear-eyed look. It requires the best-interest finding described above, and it is community supervision with conditions rather than a dismissal. Registration attaches to it. For some people it is the right decision. It is never one to make without understanding all of that.

What to Do Now

If you have been charged, or a detective has told you an indecency allegation is being investigated:

• Do not give a statement to police or CPS about the allegation, and do not try to explain it to family members who ask. Say that you want to speak with your attorney first.
• Do not contact the child, the child’s parents, or anyone else connected to the allegation about it, for any reason. Contact can affect the case and should not happen without advice from counsel.
• Do not delete anything. That includes messages, photos, and accounts. Preserve everything and discuss it with counsel.
• Preserve records. Text messages, call logs, calendars, location history, photos, and any custody or family-court paperwork. Keep them where they are and tell your lawyer they exist.
• Do not consent to a search of your devices or your home. If officers have a warrant, comply and keep the paperwork.
• Call a lawyer before your first court date, and before you talk to anyone official.

If a family member is making this call, that is welcome. The client is the person facing the charge regardless of who pays, and the accused of child molestation page explains how that works.

How Kent Works

Kent Starr has been a criminal defense lawyer since 1997 and practices solo. When you hire him, he is the lawyer on the file from the first review of the evidence through trial. There is no associate handling the case, and no hand-off after the consultation.

His office is in McKinney, the county seat, and the district courts at the Russell A. Steindam Courts Building are where he does this work. He represents people charged with indecency with a child from across Collin County, including Plano, Frisco, and Allen, and also represents people facing these charges elsewhere in Texas. The Collin County sex crimes defense page covers the other charges he defends.

The consultation is free and confidential, Kent takes it himself, and you do not have to explain anything on the phone to schedule it. Call (214) 982-1408.

Past results do not guarantee future outcomes. Every case is evaluated on its own facts.

ADVERTISEMENT. This site is attorney advertising. Kent Starr is responsible for the content of this website. Information provided here is general and is not legal advice; reading this page does not create an attorney-client relationship.