bill adding two situations to sexual assault law

The text as introduced · 666 words

89R4323 MZM-F

By: Collier
H.B. No. 1714

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 the other person is unconscious or physically unable to

resist;

(4) 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 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;

(8) the actor is a public servant who coerces the other

person to submit or participate;

(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;

(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;

(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;

(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;

(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 ]

(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 ;

(15) the actor knows the other person is intoxicated

by any substance such that the other person is incapable of

appraising the nature of the act; or

(16) the actor knows that the other person has

withdrawn consent to the act and the actor persists in the act after

consent is withdrawn .

SECTION 2. 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 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2025.