Chattanooga Sex Crime Lawyer

Sexual battery is the unlawful sexual contact with a person when:

• Force or coercion is used to accomplish the act;
• The sexual contact is accomplished without the consent of the victim and the defendant knows or has reason to know at the time of the contact that the victim did not consent;
• The defendant knows or has reason to know that the victim is mentally defective, mentally incapacitated or physically helpless; or
• The sexual contact is accomplished by fraud.

Sexual Battery is an E Felony

Sexual battery is raised to the level of aggravated sexual battery when:

• Force or coercion is used to accomplish the act, and the defendant is armed with a weapon or any article used or fashioned in a manner to lead the victim reasonably to believe it to be a weapon;
• The defendant causes bodily injury to the victim;
• The defendant is aided or abetted by one (1) or more other persons; and
• Force or coercion is used to accomplish the act; or
• The defendant knows or has reason to know that the victim is mentally defective, mentally incapacitated or physically helpless; or
• The victim is less than thirteen (13) years of age.

Aggravated sexual battery is a B Felony but is punished at a higher range if there was injury caused and the victim was mentally defective, mentally incapacitated, or physically helpless.

A person who solicits or hires another person with the intent that the other person engage in prostitution, or entering or remaining in a house of prostitution for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity commits the offense of patronizing prostitution. Patronizing prostitution is an A misdemeanor, but when the individual solicited is a law enforcement officer posing as a minor or a person of intellectual disability, the crime is a B felony. If the person solicited for prostitution is a minor, the crime rises to the level of an A felony.

Statutory rape is the unlawful sexual penetration of a victim by the defendant or of the defendant by the victim when:

• The victim is at least thirteen (13) but less than fifteen (15) years of age and the defendant is at least four (4) years but less than ten (10) years older than the victim; or
• The victim is at least fifteen (15) but less than eighteen (18) years of age and the defendant is more than five (5) but less than ten (10) years older than the victim.

Statutory Rape is an E Felony. A first offense tatutory rape conviction does not always require the additional penalty of the sex offender registry but, in certain circumstances, can require a defendant to register.

Aggravated statutory rape is the unlawful sexual penetration of a victim by the defendant, or of the defendant by the victim, when the victim is at least thirteen (13) but less than eighteen (18) years of age and the defendant is at least ten (10) years older than the victim.

Aggravated Statutory Rape is a D felony

Rape is unlawful sexual penetration of a victim by the defendant or of the defendant by a victim when

• Force or coercion is used
• The sexual penetration occurs without the consent of the victim and the defendant knows or has reason to know at the time of the penetration that the victim did not consent;
• The defendant knows or has reason to know that the victim is:
  • Mentally defective;
  • Mentally incapacitated;
  • Physically helpless; or
  • A vulnerable adult, with an intellectual disability; or
  • The sexual penetration is accomplished by fraud.

The offense of sexual contact with a minor occurs when there is sexual contact and the defendant is at least four years older than the victim and the defendant was in a position of trust or supervision and used that position to accomplish the sexual contact.

Sexual Contact with a Minor is an A misdemeanor. Each instance of sexual contact can be charged separately.

It is an offense to solicit a person under 18 to engage in sexual conduct that would be one of a number of criminal felonies if completed. The crime occurs even if the person solicited is law enforcement posing as a minor.

Solicitation of a minor is punished one offense classification lower than the most serious crime solicited, unless the offense solicited was a Class E felony, in which case the offense shall be a Class A misdemeanor.