Our client, an immigrant mother with limited English proficiency, faced a felony charge of Criminal Mischief in the First Degree — a charge commonly used in cases of alleged child abuse or neglect — carrying a potential prison sentence of up to five years. Attorney Kylie Cin represented her through a two-week jury trial and secured a full Not Guilty verdict.
The charge arose from a dental health issue identified in our client’s child during a routine school screening. The child had arrived in the United States with pre-existing dental problems. When the school alerted child services and child services contacted our client, she responded — scheduling a dental appointment, attending the consultation, and asking detailed questions about the recommended procedure, which involved multiple extractions. She asked about her child’s pain, the recovery process, and whether less invasive options existed. She then went home, discussed the plan with her husband, and scheduled the procedure.
When the family’s dental insurance denied authorization for the procedure, they worked through the appeal process until authorization was obtained and a new appointment was scheduled. Three days before that scheduled procedure date, child services removed the child from the home on the basis that the procedure had not yet been completed — and both parents were charged with a felony.
The prosecution argued that our client had neglected her child’s dental needs, that she must have understood the English-language medical information she received, and that her many questions about the procedure demonstrated she never truly intended to go through with it.
Ms. Cin dismantled each of those arguments at trial. She presented expert testimony from a dentist familiar with the family’s home country, who explained that in their culture dental care is typically sought only when a child is experiencing pain — and this child was not in pain. The expert also addressed the genuine difficulties faced by immigrants who have not yet mastered English in navigating complex medical terminology and instructions. Finally, the expert testified that a parent asking careful questions about a painful and invasive procedure for their child is not evidence of neglect — it is evidence of engaged and responsible parenting.
After two weeks of trial, the jury returned a Not Guilty verdict.
This case reflects the kind of complex, high-stakes defense work our firm is committed to providing. Ms. Cin’s thorough preparation, expert witness strategy, and cultural context arguments made the difference between a potential five-year prison sentence and a mother returning home to her family.