A criminal lawyer dealing with a sexual battery case must realize that sexual battery charges can be filed as a result of very different fact patterns and case scenarios. For example, some sexual battery offenses are committed by one stranger upon another. In other cases, the offender and the victim may be family members or have some other relation. In yet other cases, an offender may be a caregiver or custodian of the victim.
Under Florida law, certain fact patterns and case scenarios are more egregious than others. As a result, certain types of sexual battery fall under a specific type of sexual battery charge based on the specific circumstances present in the case. Anyone charged under one of these specified sexual battery offenses faces a first degree felony.
For example, a police officer could be charged with this type of sexual battery for raping an arrestee in the backseat of his patrol car.
Sexual Battery Victim 12 Years or Older – Specified Circumstances
The definition of this type of sexual battery is defined in Florida Statute 749.011(4). Like other sexual battery offenses, the first few elements include the age of the victim and the sex act. From there, the case may be aggravated, depending on the specific facts of what happened or what is being alleged by the prosecution.
Thus, the prosecution must prove the following four legal elements to obtain a conviction for any of the specified types of sexual battery offenses enumerated in Florida Statute 749.011(4):
1) The prosecution must prove that the victim was age 12 or older.
2) The prosecution must prove that the defendant did a sexual act with/upon the victim that resulted in the either the defendant’s or the victim’s anus, vagina, or mouth being penetrated or having union with the sex organs of the other, or
The defendant did a sexual act with/upon the victim which resulted in the victim’s anus or vagina being penetrated or having union by/with an object.
3) The prosecution must prove that the victim was “physically helpless” to resist the defendant’s actions or
The prosecution must prove that the victim was coerced into submission by the defendant’s threatened use of violence likely to cause serious personal injury and the victim reasonably believed that the defendant had the ability to carry out those threats at that time, or
The prosecution must prove that the victim was coerced into submission by the defendant’s threat of retaliation, whether threatened to be against the victim or another person or persons, and the victim reasonably believed that the defendant had the ability to carry out those threats at some point in the future, or
The prosecution must prove that the defendant administered a controlled substance, narcotic, or anesthetic to the victim (or knew that someone had administered a controlled substance, narcotic, or anesthetic to the victim) without the victim’s consent or knowledge that resulted in the victim’s mental incapacitation, or
The prosecution must prove that the defendant knew or had reason to believe that the victim was mentally defective, or
The prosecution must prove the victim was “physically incapacitated”, or
The prosecution must prove that the defendant was either a certified law enforcement officer, a certified correctional officer, a certified probation officer, an elected official, or a person in a probation, detention, community control, controlled release, custodial or other such setting who had a position of authority/control and the defendant acted in a way that made the victim believe that he/she was a person in a position of authority/control as an employee/agent of the government.
4) The prosecution must prove that the victim did not consent to the sex act in question.
According to its legal definition, a person is considered to be “physically helpless” when he/she is asleep, unconscious or unable to communicate their willingness to act for any other reason. Similarly, a person who is “physically incapacitated” is someone who is handicapped or bodily impaired, or is otherwise substantially limited in his/her ability to resist or flee an act done by another.