The State of South Carolina v. Craig Carl Busse

Newberry, South Carolina criminal defense lawyer represented Defendant charged with second-degree

criminal sexual conduct with a minor.



Busse was the victim's stepfather. The victim's mother—Busse's wife—found text

messages on the victim's cell phone in which the victim told her boyfriend that Busse

sexually assaulted her. The victim was fourteen years old. When the mother

confronted the victim, she denied the sexual assaults occurred. Eighteen months

later, the victim told a friend at her school Busse had been sexually assaulting her.

The friend reported it to the friend's mother, who then reported it to officials at their

school. As the law requires, the school officials notified law enforcement authorities

of the reported abuse. The Department of Social Services took the victim into

protective custody. In a forensic interview a few weeks later, the victim told the

interviewer Busse sexually assaulted her "in the span of about two years."



At trial, the victim testified Busse began touching her when she was in the eighth

grade. Initially, he touched her breasts and vagina with his hands on top of her

clothes. He soon began reaching under her clothes to touch her breasts and vagina.

The sexual assaults progressed to the point he was inserting his fingers inside her

vagina, touching her vagina with his mouth and tongue, and forcing her to perform

oral sex on him. She testified Busse ejaculated in her mouth once.

Guilty and affirmed on appeal.