Virginia has a reputation for being very hardline indeed on matters of sex and the like. Soliciting a prostitute is considered a misdemeanor, but it is definitely one of the most heavily penalized misdemeanors out there. Solicitation involves a lot of different parameters. You could be soliciting pretty much any adult and you could potentially be charged with something as serious as solicitation. The fact of the matter is that there are a lot of different ways in which you could solicit someone, so it is very important that you understand how you might be guilty of a crime such as this.
Essentially, if you approach any adult at all and ask them to have sex with you in exchange for financial remuneration, you are soliciting them and you are liable to be prosecuted for this crime as well. The fact of the matter is that most people don’t realize that soliciting does not require the presence of a professional sex worker at all, nor does it require the sort of setting that sex workers usually work in either. All it requires is two adults, one of which is paying the other in exchange for the sex that they are having.
One really important aspect of solicitation is consent. Regardless of the fact that consent was bought and paid for rather than obtained in a legal manner, both parties consented to all that happened in cases where solicitation is the offense that one is being charged with. This means that you can’t be charged with rape and solicitation at the same time, although if you are being charged with rape there is a chance that you might end up getting charged with solicitation if the rape charge can’t be proven or if there is a lack of evidence in this particular situation.
If you are looking for a lawyer to defend you, you need to think about whether or not the other party actually consented to having sex in exchange for money. If money was offered and rejected but sex was had anyway, this will look more like rape and any lawyer that you hire is going to have to be informed of this fact so that they may defend you accordingly. You should realize that no matter how you feel about the accusations that are being levied against you, you are going to have to be completely upfront and honest with your lawyer, otherwise they might end up getting surprised by something that the prosecution manages to find out about you which could potentially result in the entire case for your defense falling apart.
There are a lot of factors that are going to affect your case, and all of them could potentially create problems for you in the future. Try to make a list of all of the things that you remember about the incident in question and you will be able to present a more coherent narrative that your lawyers can defend.