Los Angeles Criminal Defense

The District Attorney Must Prove Certain Facts For Felony Sexual Battery

California Criminal Law defines Felony sexual battery when a person touches an intimate part of another or causes the victim to masturbate or touch an intimate part of either of those persons or a third person, while the victim is unlawfully restrained by the accused or an accomplice, or while the victim is institutionalized for medical treatment and while seriously disabled or medically incapacitated, and the touching is against the will of the victim and is for the purpose of sexual arousal, sexual gratification, or sexual abuse.

The unlawful restraint element of felony sexual battery may be shown by psychological pressure such as when words, act, and authority control the victim.

Sexual Battery By Misrepresentation. Felony sexual battery is also committed if a person touches an intimate part of another person for sexual arousal, sexual gratification, or sexual abuse, if the victim is unconscious of the nature of the act because the perpetrator fraudulently represented that the touching served a professional purpose.

This includes when the victim comes to the defendant for medical treatment and the defendant touches the intimate body parts of that patient while purporting to examine him or her.

"Sexual abuse," includes a purpose of insulting, humiliating, intimidating, or physically harming a person sexually by touching an intimate part of the person.

Felony sexual battery, unlike misdemeanor sexual battery requires contact with skin.

Sexual battery is a specific intent crime.

The District Attorney will ask the court for a punishment in this range if you are convicted:

Felony sexual battery is punishable in California by imprisonment in state prison for 2, 3, or 4 years and a $10,000 fine, or by imprisonment in county jail for one year and a $2000 fine.

If the offense is committed against a minor and the defendant has a prior Penal Code Section 243.4 felony conviction, the offense is punishable in California by imprisonment for two, three, or four years and a $10,000 fine.

If the offense is committed by the victim's employer, that fact is considered by the Superior Court Judge or Commissioner as an aggravating factor in sentencing.

Los Angeles Criminal Defense Attorneys

The District Attorney Must ProveCertain Facts for Misdemeanor Sexual Battery

Misdemeanor sexual battery is touching an intimate part of another person, if the touching is against the will of the victim and for the specific purpose of sexual arousal, sexual gratification, or sexual abuse.

"Sexual abuse," includes a purpose of insulting, humiliating, intimidating, or physically harming a person sexually by touching an intimate part of the person.

The District Attorney will ask the court for a punishment in this range if you are convicted:

The offense is punishable by imprisonment in the county jail for 6 months and a $2000 fine. If the offense involves an employer of the victim, the offense is punishable by imprisonment in county jail for 6 months and a $3000 fine.

L.A. Criminal Attorneys: Consent of the Victim. Reasonable and Good Faith Belief

Consent may be a criminal defense to sexual battery because it may negate that element of the offense.

California Criminal law defines "consent" as positive cooperation in act or attitude pursuant to an exercise of free will. The person must act freely and voluntarily, and have knowledge of the nature of the act or transaction involved.

Determining whether or not a reasonable, good-faith belief the victim consented is for the jury to decide. It is not up to the District Attorney or the judge to decide if you had a reasonable and good faith belief that the victim consented.

If you have been accused of a sex crime in California, contact the dedicated defense attorneys with over 80 years of combined experience for quality legal representation.