BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 65 Page 1 Date of Hearing: April 10, 2013 ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS Mike Gatto, Chair AB 65 (Achadjian) - As Amended: February 25, 2013 Policy Committee: Public SafetyVote: 7-0 Urgency: Yes State Mandated Local Program: Yes Reimbursable: No SUMMARY This bill expands the definition of rape, or felonious oral copulation, sodomy, or sexual penetration, to include situations in which the perpetrator fraudulently induces the victim to believe he or she is someone other than the perpetrator - not just the victim's spouse. FISCAL EFFECT Unknown, likely minor if any, annual GF costs for increased state prison commitments. No one was committed to state prison in in the past few years under the current statutes, and there is little reason to anticipate more than an occasional commitment under the proposed expansion. COMMENTS 1)Rationale. Under current law, rape by fraud or impersonation can only be committed where the perpetrator holds him or herself out to be the spouse of the victim. This provision also applies to specified crimes involving unlawful oral copulation, sodomy, or sexual penetration by a foreign object. As a result, there is a discrepancy in current law with respect to the protection of an unmarried victim who has an intimate relationship with another person. The author contends the statute should be updated so as not to limit the impersonation to spouses. 2)Supporters , including the District Attorneys Association, cite two recent cases: AB 65 Page 2 A Santa Barbara County case in which a male entered a residence during the night and had intercourse with the female occupant. The victim believed the suspect was her cohabitant boyfriend. Although she was awake during the encounter, the victim did not immediately realize he was not her boyfriend. When the victim realized he was not her boyfriend she resisted and he fled. Although the perpetrator was arrested, the D.A. could not prosecute for felony rape, since the victim and her boyfriend lived together but were not married. The D.A. charged misdemeanor sexual battery and trespass, and the case was settled when the defendant pled guilty to these lesser charges. The Second District Court of Appeals overturned a rape conviction just weeks ago in the case of People v. Morales (2013) in which the court urged the Legislature to "correct the incongruity that exists when a man may commit rape by having intercourse with a woman when impersonating a husband, but not when impersonating a boyfriend." 3)There is no known opposition . 4)Similar Legislation . SB 59 (Evans) provides that rape, sodomy, oral copulation, or sexual penetration by fraud occurs where the individual submits under the belief that the individual committing the act is the victim's sexual partner. SB 59 is pending in Senate Appropriations. 5)Prior Legislation : AB 765 (Achadjian), 2012, expanded the definition of rape by fraud to include submission of the victim to sexual intercourse under the belief the perpetrator was a cohabitant. AB 765, which passed this committee unanimously, was held in the Senate Public Safety Committee. Analysis Prepared by : Geoff Long / APPR. / (916) 319-2081