The California PC 243.4 outlines the crime of sexual battery. The alternative name for California's sexual battery law is California's sexual assault law. You may face criminal charges under PC 243.4 if you unlawfully touch the intimate parts of another person for sexual abuse, arousal, or gratification. You can only face charges if you touch the private parts of another person against your will. The prosecutor may charge the offense of sexual battery as a felony or misdemeanor offense, depending on the circumstances of the case. If you are facing charges for sexual assault in California, the consequences can be severe. We at Orange County Criminal Lawyer can help you fight the criminal charges.
Prosecutor's Proof
The California sexual battery law is different from the California rape law because it does not require the defendant to engage in sexual intercourse or penetration of the victim. Even if you have an ongoing sexual relationship with the accuser, you may still face battery charges.
For the prosecutor to accuse you of misdemeanor sexual battery, the prosecutor has to prove that you made contact with the intimate part of another person against the person's will. You may either make the illegal contact directly or indirectly through the clothing. In the case of indirect contact, you may make contact through your clothing or the alleged victim's clothing.
For you to face felony sexual battery charges, the prosecutor has to prove that you made an unlawful contact with the bare skin of the alleged victim. You may have made contact directly or through your clothing. You cannot face felony sexual battery charges unless you make contact with the bare skin of the victim. If you make contact through the victim's clothing, you cannot face felony charges.
The prosecutor must also prove that you touched the intimate part of another person. A private part refers to the groin, the anus, sexual organs, or the buttocks of the victim. For a female victim, the victim's breasts qualify as an intimate part of the body.
The prosecutor should also prove that the alleged touch was against the will of the victim. You cannot face charges if the alleged victim was okay with the touching or if the victim had allowed you to touch his/her intimate part. Touching a person against his/her will means that the person did not consent to the touch. A victim can only be in consent if he/she acts out of a free will and is not under duress at the time of the touching. The victim must also be aware of the nature of the act to which he/she is agreeing or consenting.
If the victim consented to the touch, you could not face charges for sexual battery. However, it is essential to note that if you trick the victim or fraudulently make the victim believe that the touching is for professional purposes, you may still face sexual battery charges. This is because fraud cancels consent, and as long as you tricked the victim, you cannot say that the victim was in approval. If you use fraud to trick the victim, the victim will not be aware of the nature of the act to which he/she is consenting.
Aggravated Forms of Sexual Abuse
California PC 243.4 also addresses the aggravated forms of sexual abuse. You may face charges for aggravated sexual battery if you unlawfully restrain the victim or have another person unlawfully restrain the victim. If the victim of the sexual assault is institutionalized for medical treatment as a result of the sexual battery, you may face aggravated charges. You will be guilty of aggravated sexual battery if the victim is disabled or medically incapacitated.
The prosecutor might charge you with an aggravated sexual battery if you used fraud to make the victim think the touching of his/her intimate part was for a professional purpose. Sexual battery charges may apply if the defendant forces the victim to masturbate or to touch the private part of the defendant, another person, or the accomplice. The California sexual battery laws recognize a situation where the victim is made to touch the intimate part of the defendant instead of the defendant touching the victim.
You may be guilty of unlawfully restraining a victim if you control the freedom of the victim using words, authority, or acts. The restraint should be against the will of the victim for you to face charges. It is important to note that for unlawful restraint to apply, more than the physical force needed to accomplish sexual touching is necessary.
You cannot face charges for unlawfully restraining a victim if you use lawful authority to restrain the victim for a lawful purpose. However, for you to avoid facing charges, the restraint must remain lawful.
Motives of Sexual Battery
You may commit sexual battery for sexual arousal, gratification, or sexual abuse. You may be guilty of committing sexual assault for sexual abuse if you have the intent to cause sexual harm to the victim. This means that you have the intent to humiliate, intimidate, hurt, or injure the victim of sexual battery. The primary aim of sexual abuse is to cause the victim to experience pain in his or her intimate parts.
Sexual touching to abuse a victim is a form of sexual battery. To face charges for sexual battery, you do not necessarily have to touch the victim for sexual pleasure or gratification. As long as you touch the victim unlawfully against his/her will, you will face charges under California law.
You may still face sexual battery charges even if you do not achieve any sexual arousal or gratification after touching the intimate parts of the victim. You do not need to achieve any form of sexual gratification or sexual arousal for you to face charges. Even if you touch the victim to cause him or her discomfort, injury, or pain, you will face sexual battery charges under California law.
Aiding in Sexual Battery
You may face sexual battery charges if you are an accomplice or if you aid in the commission of sexual battery. Being an accomplice means that you are guilty of aiding and abetting the commission of sexual battery. If you support the commission of the sexual assault, you will be subject to similar penalties like the defendant responsible for committing the sexual battery.
The law would consider you an accomplice to the crime of sexual battery if you were aware that the defendant or the primary culprit was acting criminally at the time of committing the offense. It should also be evident that you had the intent to facilitate, aid, promote, instigate, or encourage the execution or the commission of a sexual assault.
You may qualify as an accomplice of sexual battery if you did or had the intention to participate in a criminal conspiracy or a joint effort to execute the sexual assault.
Penalties for Sexual Battery
The charges you face after committing sexual battery will depend on whether the prosecutor charges the offense as a felony or misdemeanor.
Misdemeanor Consequences
You may face misdemeanor charges if it is evident that you touched another person's intimate part against the will of the person. The touch should have been for sexual abuse, arousal, or sexual gratification. For you to face misdemeanor sexual battery charges, the aggravating factors outlined earlier should not be present.
For a charge of a sexual battery without aggravating factors, the consequences include serving jail time for a period not exceeding six months in a county jail in California. You may also have to pay a hefty fine not exceeding $2,000. If the victim were your employee, the penalty would rise to $3,000.
The court may also subject you to a summary or informal probation. You may serve the probation for up to five years. While serving probation, you have to adhere to terms of probation, including performing community service. You may also have to enroll and complete a batterer's education program.
The court may also require the defendant to complete a program aimed at helping people with compulsion and abuse issues. According to the California PC 290, you may have to enroll as a sexual offender for a minimum of ten years.
Felony Consequences
If you commit the crime of sexual battery and aggravating factors are present, the crime of sexual assault becomes a wobbler. If the offense is a wobbler, the prosecutor may choose to charge the crime as a felony or misdemeanor. The prosecutor considers your criminal history and the facts of your case when deciding whether to charge the crime as a misdemeanor or felony.
Even when aggravating factors are present, the prosecutor may choose to charge the offense as a misdemeanor. You would face the same penalties as a misdemeanor sexual battery without aggravating factors. However, you will be subject to a longer county jail sentence of one year instead of six months.
When aggravating factors are present, the prosecutor may choose to charge you with felony sexual battery. If the prosecutor charges you with felony sexual battery, you may be subject to felony probation, also known as formal probation.
The court may also subject you to imprisonment in a state prison in California for two, three, or four years. If the victim suffers substantial physical injury, also known as significant bodily injury, you may be subject to an additional three to five years of imprisonment in state prison.
The court may require you to pay a maximum fine not exceeding $10,000. If you commit felony sexual battery, you will have to register as a tier three sex offender for life.
If the prosecutor charges you with felony sexual battery for sexual battery on a victim institutionalized for medical treatment, a medically incapacitated victim, or a severely disabled victim, you will have to register as tier one sex offender for ten years. The purpose of the unlawful touching should be for sexual gratification, arousal, or abuse.
Fighting Charges under PC 243.4
When the prosecutor charges you with a sexual battery in California, you do not have to accept all the allegations against you. With the help of a criminal defense attorney, you can use various defense strategies to fight the charges. Some of the common defenses to sexual battery charges include:
- Permission of the Victim
You may assert that you had the consent or the permission of the victim to touch his/her intimate part. Therefore, if you prove in court that the touching was consensual, you cannot be guilty of sexual battery. You may also point out that you believed that the touch was consensual. For instance, if the defendant inserts his/her hands inside the pants of the victim and the victim does not object or tell the defendant to stop, the defendant may think that the victim has consented to the act.
- Lack of Adequate Evidence
With the help of an attorney, you may fight sexual battery charges if the prosecutor does not have adequate evidence against you. An act under the California PC 243.4 does not require any form of physical evidence to prove. In many instances, the prosecutor may nor have adequate evidence against the defendant to confirm that the defendant is guilty of sexual battery.
For you to face sexual battery charges under California law, the prosecutor has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you committed the offense. If the prosecutor does not have solid evidence against you, he/she may not be able to prove you are guilty of sexual battery. If you have a credible attorney by your side, the attorney may be able to convince the prosecutor to reduce or even dismiss your charges. The sexual battery charge does not necessarily have to proceed to trial.
- Victim of False Accusation
An accusation of sexual battery does not require physical evidence to prove the offense. Therefore, it is easy for one person to falsely accuse another person of sexual battery. A person may falsely accuse you of sexual battery due to anger, jealousy, or to seek revenge against you. False accusations of sexual battery are common in cases involving divorce and child custody. One party may falsely accuse the other of sexual battery to get a favorable outcome in a child custody battle.
It is common for the legal defense of false accusations to overlap with the defense of false accusations. In most cases, the prosecutor may not have adequate evidence against the defendant if the victim made up the sexual battery accusation while the battery did not occur.
- The Touch was not Sexual
You may fight sexual battery charges under California law if it is evident that your touch was not sexual. The law outlines that for you to face sexual battery charges, you should touch the victim with intent to abuse the victim sexually or for sexual gratification or arousal. If the touch was not for any of the three motives, you might fight the sexual battery charges. For instance, if you get into a physical altercation and you strike the intimate part of another person's body inadvertently, you cannot face sexual battery charges.
Related Offenses
Several offenses under California law are related to the attack of sexual battery. The prosecutor may charge you with the related crimes alongside the crime of sexual assault or instead of the offense of sexual battery. Some of the related offenses include:
California Penal Code 261 PC - Rape
Rape is one of the most severe felonies that you can commit to California. The California PC 261 outlines the criminal offense of rape. You may face rape charges if you engage in non-consensual sexual intercourse with another person by using fraud, force, or threats. PC 261 outlines the consequences of rape when the defendant is not married to the victim. However, even when the defendant is married to the victim, rape is still illegal, as outlined by the California PC 262. The elements of spouse rape, as described under PC 262, are similar to the details of non-spousal rape as outlined under PC 261.
For you to face rape charges under California law, the prosecutor has to prove some aspects of the offense. First, the prosecutor has to prove that you engaged in sexual intercourse with another person, a man, or a woman. It should also be evident that at the time of engaging in sexual intercourse, you were not married to the victim.
The prosecutor also has to prove that the other party did not agree or consent to the intercourse. The prosecutor can prove that you forced or coerced the victim to engage in sexual intercourse with you using force, violence, menace, or coercion.
You may also have instilled fear in the victim, making the victim fear immediate bodily harm or harm to his or her family members or another person. You may have threatened the victim with future retaliation if he/she fails to engage in sexual intercourse with you. The prosecutor may also prove that you threatened the victim using the authority of the public office to arrest, incarcerate, or deport someone.
You can only face rape charges if sexual penetration takes place. Even if the penetration is slight, you will still face rape charges. If you claim that the victim consented to the sexual penetration, it should be evident that the victim acted freely and was aware of the nature of the act. A victim may have accepted the sexual act only to change his or her mind during the action. If this happens, the law considers sexual penetration to be non-consensual.
A victim cannot give consent if he/she is very intoxicated at the time of sexual penetration. If the victim was incapacitated, either mentally or physically, at the time of the rape, he/she may not be able to give consent. The same case applies if the victim was asleep or unconscious at the time of the rape. He/she was not in a position to give consent.
You may face both sexual battery and rape charges if you unlawfully touch the intimate part of a victim, and you proceed to rape the victim.
Battery - PC 242
Sexual battery is related to the crime of battery under the California PC 242. The California law defines battery as an uninvited or unwanted touching. The touch may be sexual or not. You may face battery charges if you take another person's hand, and you place the hand on your intimate part casually, you may violate the California battery laws. However, you will not violate the California sexual battery laws because you did not touch the victim's intimate parts.
For you to face battery charges, the prosecutor has to prove that you intentionally or willfully touched another person in an offensive or willful manner. If the prosecutor cannot prove the three elements of the crime of battery, you cannot face charges under California PC 242.
Touching another person requires the defendant to make physical contact with another person. It does not require you to cause an injury or discomfort to the victim. Therefore, you may commit battery by exercising even the slightest touch on the victim. The touch may be either direct or indirect if you touch the victim through his /her clothing. You may also touch the victim using an object like a stick.
You may face battery charges if you touch an item or object, which is intimate- related to the victim. For instance, if the victim is holding an item and you intentionally or willfully knock the item out of the victim's hand, you may face battery charges. Acting in a willful manner means that you were aware of your actions and the implications of the action. It does not mean that you intended to break the law, gain any advantage, or hurt another person.
You will only face battery charges if your touch on the victim is harmful or offensive. A touch may be harmful and offensive if the touch is angry, disrespectful, violent, or rude.
The crime of battery is a misdemeanor under California law if the battery does not cause serious injuries, and if you do not commit battery on a peace officer. The consequences for battery include serving a summary or misdemeanor probation. You may also face jail time for up to six months in a county jail in California. You may have to pay a hefty fine of up to $2,000.
Contact an Orange County Criminal Lawyer Near Me
If you are facing sexual battery charges in California, you require an attorney to guide you and help you come up with a proper defense. If you have a pending case, Orange County Criminal Lawyer can help you fight the charges. Contact us 714-262-4833 at and speak to one of our attorneys.
