Richard L. Lougee has " made Arizona a safer place for the criminally accused."

The John J. Flynn Lifetime Achievement Award
Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice

There is no criminal charge more difficult to defend than one involving an allegation of child sexual abuse. One commentator put it this way:

Pretrial publicity is not the big difficulty. It is generic prejudice. I do not think you can get a fair child abuse trial before a jury anywhere in the country... I do not care how sophisticated or smart jurors are, when they hear that a child has been abused, a piece of their mind closes up, and this goes for the judge, the juror, and all of us... we do not care whether it is the right individual or not. Somebody should be punished for this heinous offense.

In New Mexico in 1981, Richard L. Lougee first successfully defended a client charged with a child sexual offense. He did so by putting together a team of experts and lawyers who understood the "generic prejudice" in these cases and who had the professional knowledge and courage to stand up to those willing to believe virtually any claim of child sexual abuse. Mr. Lougee's skills in defending cases of child sexual abuse are now nationally recognized. He has published articles in this most difficult area of law and he regularly speaks at the educational functions for other lawyers around the country. Lougee's successful record in these cases is matched by few other lawyers. It was in large part because of his unwavering dedication to the fair treatment of those accused of child crimes that the Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice cited him in 2003 for having "made Arizona a safer place for the criminally accused."