By: West S.B. No. 1132
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
1-1 relating to the creation of the offense of indecency with an
1-2 elderly or disabled individual.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Chapter 21, Penal Code, is amended by adding
1-5 Section 21.10 to read as follows:
1-6 SECTION 21.10. INDECENCY WITH AN ELDERLY OR DISABLED
1-7 INDIVIDUAL. (a) A person commits an offense if the person engages
1-8 in sexual contact with an elderly or disabled individual without
1-9 the individual's consent.
1-10 (b) Sexual contact under Subsection (a) is without the
1-11 consent an elderly or disabled individual if:
1-12 (1) the actor compels the individual to submit or
1-13 participate by the use of physical force or violence;
1-14 (2) the actor compels the individual to submit or
1-15 participate by threatening to use force or violence against the
1-16 individual, and the individual believes that the actor has the
1-17 present ability to execute the threat;
1-18 (3) the individual has not consented and the actor
1-19 knows the individual is unconscious or physically unable to resist;
1-20 (4) the actor knows that as a result of mental disease
1-21 or defect the individual is at the time of the act incapable either
1-22 of appraising the nature of the act or of resisting it;
1-23 (5) the individual has not consented and the actor
2-1 knows that the individual is unaware that the sexual contact is
2-2 occurring;
2-3 (6) the actor has intentionally impaired the
2-4 individual's power to appraise or control the individual's conduct
2-5 by administering a substance without the individual's permission or
2-6 knowledge; or
2-7 (7) the actor compels the individual to submit or
2-8 participate by threatening to use force or violence against any
2-9 person, and the individual believes that the actor is capable of
2-10 carrying out the threat.
2-11 (c) In this section, "elderly individual" has the same
2-12 meaning as that set forth in Section 22.04(c)(2), Penal Code.
2-13 (d) In this section, "disabled individual" has the same
2-14 meaning as that set forth in Section 22.04(c)(3), Penal Code.
2-15 (e) It is a defense to prosecution under Subsection (a) that
2-16 the conduct consisted of medical care for the elderly or disabled
2-17 individual and did not include any contact between the anus or
2-18 sexual organ of the elderly or disabled individual and the mouth,
2-19 anus, or sexual organ of the actor or a third party.
2-20 (f) An offense under this section is a felony of the second
2-21 degree.
2-22 SECTION 2. (a) The changes in law made by this Act apply
2-23 only to an offense committed or a violation that occurs on or after
2-24 the effective date of this Act. For the purposes of this Act, an
2-25 offense is committed or a violation occurs before the effective
3-1 date of this Act if any element of the offense or violation occurs
3-2 before that date.
3-3 (b) An offense committed or violation that occurs before the
3-4 effective date of this Act is covered by the law in effect when the
3-5 offense was committed or the violation occurred, and the former law
3-6 is continued in effect for this purpose.
3-7 SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
3-8 SECTION 4. SEVERABILITY. If any section, sentence, clause,
3-9 or part of this Act shall, for any reason, be held invalid, such
3-10 invalidity shall not affect the remaining portions of the Act, and
3-11 it is hereby declared to be the intention of this legislature to
3-12 have passed each section, sentence, clause, or part irrespective of
3-13 the fact that any other section, sentence, clause, or part may be
3-14 declared invalid.
3-15 SECTION 5. EMERGENCY. The importance of this legislation
3-16 and the crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-17 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-18 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-19 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.