Bill Text: TX HB2696 | 2023-2024 | 88th Legislature | Engrossed


Bill Title: Relating to the prosecution of the offense of sexual assault.

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 7-2)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2023-05-15 - Referred to State Affairs [HB2696 Detail]

Download: Texas-2023-HB2696-Engrossed.html
  88R10579 MZM-F
 
  By: Howard, Cook, Leach, Bowers, H.B. No. 2696
      A. Johnson of Harris, et al.
 
 
 
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 
AN ACT
  relating to the prosecution of the offense of sexual assault.
         BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
         SECTION 1.  Section 22.011(b), Penal Code, is amended to
  read as follows:
         (b)  A sexual assault under Subsection (a)(1) is without the
  consent of the other person if:
               (1)  the actor compels the other person to submit or
  participate by the use of physical force, violence, or coercion;
               (2)  the actor compels the other person to submit or
  participate by threatening to use force or violence against the
  other person or to cause harm to the other person, and the other
  person believes that the actor has the present ability to execute
  the threat;
               (3)  [the other person has not consented and] the actor
  knows or reasonably should know the other person is:
                     (A)  unconscious; [or]
                     (B)  physically unable to resist;
                     (C)  incapable either of appraising the nature of
  the act or of resisting the act; or 
                     (D)  unaware that the sexual assault is occurring;
               (4)  the actor knows or reasonably should know that the
  other person has withdrawn consent to the act and the actor persists
  after consent is withdrawn [the actor knows that as a result of
  mental disease or defect the other person is at the time of the
  sexual assault incapable either of appraising the nature of the act
  or of resisting it];
               (5)  the actor knows or reasonably should know the
  other person is intoxicated by any substance such that the other
  person is incapable of consenting to the act [the other person has
  not consented and the actor knows the other person is unaware that
  the sexual assault is occurring];
               (6)  [the actor has intentionally impaired the other
  person's power to appraise or control the other person's conduct by
  administering any substance without the other person's knowledge;
               [(7)]  the actor compels the other person to submit or
  participate by threatening to use force or violence against any
  person, and the other person believes that the actor has the ability
  to execute the threat;
               (7) [(8)]  the actor is a public servant who coerces
  the other person to submit or participate;
               (8) [(9)]  the actor is a mental health services
  provider or a health care services provider who causes the other
  person, who is a patient or former patient of the actor, to submit
  or participate by exploiting the other person's emotional
  dependency on the actor;
               (9) [(10)]  the actor is a clergyman who causes the
  other person to submit or participate by exploiting the other
  person's emotional dependency on the clergyman in the clergyman's
  professional character as spiritual adviser;
               (10) [(11)]  the actor is an employee of a facility
  where the other person is a resident, unless the employee and
  resident are formally or informally married to each other under
  Chapter 2, Family Code;
               (11) [(12)]  the actor is a health care services
  provider who, in the course of performing an assisted reproduction
  procedure on the other person, uses human reproductive material
  from a donor knowing that the other person has not expressly
  consented to the use of material from that donor;
               (12) [(13)]  the actor is a coach or tutor who causes
  the other person to submit or participate by using the actor's power
  or influence to exploit the other person's dependency on the actor;
  or
               (13) [(14)]  the actor is a caregiver hired to assist
  the other person with activities of daily life and causes the other
  person to submit or participate by exploiting the other person's
  dependency on the actor.
         SECTION 2.  Section 22.011(c), Penal Code, is amended by
  adding Subdivision (1-a) to read as follows:
               (1-a) "Consent" has the meaning assigned by Section
  1.07. 
         SECTION 3.  Section 154.051(d-1), Occupations Code, is
  amended to read as follows:
         (d-1)  The board may not consider or act on a complaint
  involving an alleged violation of Section 22.011(b)(11)
  [22.011(b)(12)], Penal Code, that occurred more than seven years
  before the date on which the complaint is received by the board or
  more than 2 years from the date the complainant knew or should have
  known of the facts giving rise to the complaint, whichever is later.
         SECTION 4.  The change in law made by this Act applies only
  to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act.
  An offense committed before the effective date of this Act is
  governed by the law in effect on the date the offense was committed,
  and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose. For
  purposes of this section, an offense was committed before the
  effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurred
  before that date.
         SECTION 5.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2023.
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