A 16-year-old boy who has accused a Little Rock woman of sexual assault and his father might refuse to testify at trial, despite orders to do so after being granted immunity from prosecution, their attorney said Monday.
The immunity grant is not enough to guarantee father and son won’t be prosecuted on false swearing, perjury or giving police a false report over what they say at her trial, attorney David Cannon told Circuit Judge Chris Piazza at a hearing.
Cannon did not say what they might say that could expose them to accusations of untruthfulness.
At the request of prosecutors, the judge ordered the boy and his 39-year-old father to testify at Lanie Michelle Milligan’s April trial. Monday’s hearing was for their attorney to present his objections to the immunity order that requires them to testify.
“No testimony or other information compelled under this order, or other information directly or indirectly derived from such testimony, may be used against the witness in any criminal case, except a prosecution for perjury, giving a false statement or otherwise failing to comply with the order,” the order states.
Cannon said he might recommend that his clients assert their Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate themselves even though they have immunity. They could be jailed for contempt of court if they don’t comply.
“The immunity wouldn’t be immunity in this case,” Cannon told the judge.
Deputy prosecutor Jill Kamps said the immunity statute, Arkansas Code 16-43-603, deliberately does not extend immunity to making false statements.
“It’s not in the interests of justice for someone to be able to lie with immunity,” she told the judge.
The boy’s father, on advice of counsel, has never given a statement to police about the allegations against the woman, Kamps said. The boy told authorities that when he was 15,he and Milligan had sex four times over about 4½ months in 2012, according to an arrest affidavit. He told deputies that Milligan had pressured him into sex and that his father once caught them together, according to the affidavit.
Arrested in April, Milligan, 31, is charged with two counts of fourth-degree sexual assault, a Class D felony that carries a maximum of six years in prison. Milligan, represented by attorney John Wesley Hall, is free on $5,000 bond.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 02/26/2014