Being falsely accused of indecency with a child in Texas sets two investigations in motion at once — a criminal case run by police and prosecutors, and a child welfare case run by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services — and both can reach conclusions that affect your freedom, your job, and your relationship with your own children long before any jury hears the evidence. What you do in the first hours after learning of the accusation matters more than almost anything that comes later.
What to Do in the First 48 Hours
Stop talking. Anything you say to a police officer or a CPS caseworker can be used against you in the criminal prosecution.1Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. A Guide to Child Protective Investigations That includes casual conversation, voluntary phone calls, and text messages you think will clear things up. Innocent people feel an overwhelming urge to explain themselves, and that instinct consistently makes things worse. Investigators are trained to draw out statements, and even truthful remarks can be taken out of context or used to lock you into an early version of events.
Hire a Texas criminal defense attorney with experience in sex-offense allegations before you speak to anyone connected to the case. Your lawyer will decide whether and how you communicate with investigators, and will start building a defense from the day they are retained.
Beyond hiring counsel, a few steps protect you immediately:
- Cut off all contact with the accuser and the child named in the allegation. Any communication, however innocent, can be characterized later as witness tampering or as a bond violation once charges are filed.
- Preserve everything that could support your account: text messages, emails, social media posts, phone location data, receipts, and anything that establishes where you were and what happened. Hand copies to your attorney, not to investigators.
- Say nothing about the case on social media. Posts venting about the accusation or attacking the accuser’s credibility end up in the prosecution file.
- Follow your attorney’s instructions about interacting with mutual friends, relatives, or anyone else who may be interviewed.
What the State Has to Prove
Texas Penal Code Section 21.11 creates two separate offenses. Indecency by contact involves touching a child younger than 17 on certain parts of the body, over or under clothing, with the intent to arouse or gratify sexual desire. Indecency by exposure covers exposing yourself in the presence of a child under 17 while knowing the child is there, or causing the child to expose themselves, again with sexual intent.2State of Texas. Texas Penal Code 21.11 – Indecency With a Child
Sexual intent is the element that matters most in false-accusation cases. Accidental contact, routine caregiving, bathing, dressing, and innocent situations misinterpreted by a child or a third party do not satisfy this element. Intent becomes the central battleground when the allegation surfaces during a custody dispute or family conflict. The state must prove every element beyond a reasonable doubt.
One boundary worth knowing early: there is no statute of limitations for either form of the offense, so charges can be filed years or even decades after the alleged event.3State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 12.01 – Felonies4State of Texas. Texas Penal Code 12.33 – Second Degree Felony Punishment5State of Texas. Texas Penal Code 12.34 – Third Degree Felony Punishment6State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 62.101 – Expiration of Duty to Register
Bond Conditions Can Separate You From Your Own Children
If you are arrested, the magistrate is required by law to impose specific bond conditions in any case charging a sexual offense against a child. You will be barred from communicating with the alleged victim and from going near the child’s home, school, or other places the child regularly visits.7State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 17.41 – Conditions Related to Victim of Sexual Offense These restrictions are not optional at the initial hearing.
If you already have custody or visitation rights, the bond conditions override them for up to 90 days. The magistrate can grant supervised access, but that is the exception at the initial bond stage, not the rule. For a parent living in the same household as the accusing child, this effectively means leaving the home immediately upon arrest. Your attorney can later petition for modified conditions, but the initial restrictions take effect first.
How the Criminal Investigation Builds
The Forensic Interview
The most important piece of evidence in almost every indecency case is the child’s statement. Rather than a police interrogation, Texas law enforcement typically arranges a forensic interview at a child advocacy center, conducted by a trained interviewer using research-based protocols that emphasize open-ended questions. The interview is recorded.
Your defense attorney will study that recording closely for signs the interviewer used suggestive or leading questions, for shifts in the child’s account across tellings, and for indications the child was coached. This is often where a case built on a false allegation begins to unravel.
The Outcry Witness
Texas has an evidentiary rule that surprises many defendants. Ordinarily, a witness cannot testify about what someone else told them. But in child abuse cases, the first adult the child told about the alleged offense can repeat the child’s statement in court, even though it would otherwise be hearsay.8State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Art. 38.072 – Hearsay Statement of Certain Abuse Victims The prosecution must give the defense at least 14 days’ notice identifying this witness and providing a written summary of the statement, and the trial judge holds a reliability hearing before allowing the testimony.
The rule matters enormously when the outcry witness is a parent embroiled in a custody dispute or has some other motive to encourage a false report. The defense can challenge the reliability of the statement and the circumstances of the disclosure. The child must also testify or be available to testify, giving the defense a chance to cross-examine.
The Grand Jury
Because indecency with a child is a felony, the case must go to a grand jury before formal charges can be filed. The grand jury reviews the state’s evidence and decides whether probable cause exists to indict. This is not a trial, and the standard is much lower than beyond a reasonable doubt. Defense attorneys do not have a right to present evidence, though in some cases a defendant may request to testify. If the grand jury declines to indict, the result is a “no-bill” and the case is dismissed, though prosecutors can sometimes re-present to a different grand jury.
The Parallel CPS Investigation
While police work the criminal side, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services runs a separate investigation focused on the child’s safety rather than proving a crime. The two investigations happen at the same time, and information flows between them.9Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Child Protective Investigations Anything you say to a CPS caseworker can end up with the police or the prosecutor.
A CPS investigator will visit the home, interview family members, and run background checks on every adult in the household. If the investigator believes the child faces immediate risk, they may ask you to sign a safety plan, a voluntary agreement that typically restricts contact between you and the child during the investigation. CPS cannot force you to sign one. Refusing to cooperate when the investigator believes the child is in danger will trigger a staffing meeting to seek legal intervention, which can include a court order removing the child from the home.10Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Safety Plan Resource Guide This is a decision to make with your attorney, not on your own.
When CPS closes its investigation, each allegation gets one of four dispositions: Ruled Out, Reason to Believe, Unable to Determine, or Unable to Complete.11Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Appendix 2411 – Dispositions and Risk Findings A “Reason to Believe” finding is placed in the state’s child abuse registry and can affect employment, professional licensing, and custody proceedings even if you are never criminally charged. You have the right to appeal that finding through an administrative review.
Defenses That Fit False Accusations
The specific strategy depends on the facts, but a few approaches recur in cases built on false or mistaken allegations.
Attacking the intent element is often the most productive line. Innocent contact during bathing, dressing, or medical care does not satisfy the sexual-intent requirement, and when the alleged conduct is ambiguous your attorney can put the context and your state of mind in front of the jury.
Where the allegation grew out of a custody fight or a family conflict, the defense usually focuses on the accuser’s motive and the child’s susceptibility to suggestion. Experts in child psychology can testify about how suggestive questioning, parental coaching, or a high-conflict environment shape a child’s disclosures. Inconsistencies among the forensic interview, the outcry statement, and later testimony can undercut the state’s case. Alibi evidence, digital records placing you elsewhere, and character witnesses play supporting roles.
Texas law also provides two narrow statutory affirmative defenses under Section 21.11. The first applies when the accused was no more than three years older than the child, of the opposite sex, did not use force or threats, and was not a registered sex offender. The second applies when the accused was legally married to the child at the time of the alleged offense.2State of Texas. Texas Penal Code 21.11 – Indecency With a Child The defendant carries the burden of proving them.
If You Are Cleared, What You Can Do About the Accuser
If your case ends in acquittal, dismissal, or a grand jury no-bill, you may have civil and criminal options against the person who made the false report.
A malicious prosecution claim requires proof that the accuser initiated or cooperated in bringing the charges, acted with malice rather than honest mistake, lacked probable cause, and that the criminal case ended in your favor. The bar is high. A parent who genuinely but wrongly believed something happened is not liable, and you cannot file the claim until the criminal case is fully resolved, including appeals.
Defamation is often the stronger claim. Falsely accusing someone of a sexual crime against a child is the kind of statement that qualifies as defamation per se in most jurisdictions, meaning you don’t have to prove specific financial harm — the damage to reputation is presumed. Compensation can cover lost employment, damaged relationships, and emotional distress.
Texas also makes it a crime to file a knowingly false report of child abuse. A first offense is a state jail felony carrying 180 days to two years in a state jail facility, and a second offense is a third-degree felony.12Texas Public Law. Texas Family Code 261.107 – False Report; Criminal Penalty If your attorney believes the accuser knowingly fabricated the allegation, a criminal referral is worth discussing. It won’t guarantee charges, but it creates an official record of the false accusation that can support a civil case and any ongoing custody dispute.