Sexual assault is usually a second-degree felony in Texas, punishable by 2 to 20 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine, and for anyone 17 or older, a conviction or even a deferred adjudication means registering as a sex offender for life, with a narrow exception for some close-in-age cases that takes a court order. But most of these cases aren’t decided by the punishment range. They’re decided by what happens in the first weeks: whether you talked to a detective, and whether the messages that show what really happened got saved. If you’ve been accused or you think an investigation has started, the time to hire a lawyer is before you say anything to anyone.
Call (713) 664-4000. Everything you tell us is confidential.
What the charge means
Under Penal Code § 22.011, sexual assault is penetration, or contact involving a sexual organ, anus or mouth, without consent, and the statute lists the situations that count as no consent, including force or threats, and a complainant the accused knew was unconscious or knew was too intoxicated to consent. With a complainant under 17, consent isn’t a defense, and neither is believing they were older. There is a narrow defense when the accused is no more than three years older and the complainant is at least 14, or when the two are married. It becomes aggravated sexual assault, a first-degree felony with a range of 5 to 99 years or life, when there’s a weapon, serious injury or an attempt to kill, threats of death, serious injury or kidnapping, more than one attacker, drugging, or a complainant who is under 14, 65 or older, or disabled. With a complainant under 10 (under 6 for offenses before September 1, 2025), or under 14 with an aggravating factor, the minimum is 25 years with no parole.
A judge can’t grant regular probation after a sexual assault conviction. A jury can recommend it for someone with no prior felony conviction when the sentence is 10 years or less and the complainant was 14 or older, and a judge can still grant deferred adjudication before a finding of guilt, which still means registration. In prison, you aren’t eligible for parole until you’ve served half the sentence. Our page on whether sexual assault is a felony in Texas goes through the punishment ranges and the probation and parole rules in detail, and our aggravated sexual assault page covers the first-degree charge.
Before charges are filed
Many sexual assault cases start with a report and then sit in investigation for weeks or months. That window is when the defense can do the most. Detectives usually ask the accused to come in and give their side, and some set up a pretext call, where the complainant calls you while police record it. Texas is a one-party consent state (Penal Code § 16.02), so that recording is legal, and an apology or a vague “I’m sorry about that night” can become the State’s best evidence.
Once you hire us, we tell the detective to go through us, and you stop talking. If a detective or the complainant calls you anyway, don’t engage. Call us. We lock down your phone and your side of the messages, send preservation letters for location data, rideshare records, bar tabs and security video before they disappear, and go after the complainant’s messages to other people through discovery and subpoenas once a case is filed. And when it makes sense, we put that evidence in front of the prosecutor or the grand jury before an indictment, because that’s the cheapest point in the case to end it.
After an arrest
Bond in a sexual assault case almost always comes with conditions, and a no-contact order with the complainant is the most common. Violating a condition can get your bond revoked and you held without bail until trial, and it can be a new criminal charge. That’s true even if the complainant reached out first. Replying counts. We explain every condition before you leave the courthouse, and we ask the court to change conditions that make it impossible to work or see your kids.
How we defend sexual assault cases
The messages and the timeline. Most of these cases have no eyewitness. They have two accounts and a phone. Texts and social media from before and after the encounter often say more about consent than the police report, and so does the timing of the outcry and who heard it first.
The forensic evidence. The sexual assault nurse examiner’s report and the DNA and toxicology results get read line by line. An exam that found no injury, or DNA that proves only that contact happened when contact isn’t disputed, can change the case. Jay Blass Cohen is an ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientist and a certified Drug Recognition Expert, which matters in the cases that turn on whether someone was too intoxicated to consent.
Discovery. Under the Michael Morton Act, Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 39.14, once we request it, the State has to produce its reports, witness statements and other material evidence, and anything that helps the defense has to be disclosed whether we ask or not. We use it to get the complainant’s earlier statements, the 911 call, the full forensic file and the detective’s notes, then look for where the story changed.
Trial. Texas Rule of Evidence 412 limits evidence of a complainant’s past sexual behavior. The exceptions include prior sexual history with the accused when consent is the issue, and evidence of motive or bias, and the judge decides them in a closed hearing first. Knowing how to get through that hearing is part of trying these cases well. Some cases should be tried, and juries do acquit.
Results
A Harris County jury found our client not guilty of continuous sexual abuse of a child, a charge that carries 25 years to life (tried with co-counsel). See more of our case results. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Related charges
We also defend rape accusations, statutory rape and child sex cases, and every other offense on our Houston sex crime lawyer page. For more on how the State builds these cases, see the evidence needed for a sexual assault charge and the statute of limitations for sexual assault.
Accused of sexual assault in Houston? Call Blass Law
Jay Blass Cohen has defended serious felony cases in Houston since 2009 and has never worked for the prosecution. We handle these cases discreetly, and the earlier we’re involved, the more we can do.
Call (713) 664-4000. If a detective has asked you to come in and “tell your side,” call us before you call them back.
Reviewed by Jay Blass Cohen, founder of Blass Law PLLC, ACS-CHAL Forensic Lawyer-Scientist, certified Drug Recognition Expert, and SFST instructor, serving Houston since 2009. This article is general information, not legal advice for your situation. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.