Sexual battery is a violation of Florida Statute 794.011. Sexual battery is a serious criminal offense.
Korody Law is YOUR BEST Jacksonville criminal defense attorney if you are charged with sexual battery.
I generally classify sexual battery into three types of cases:
- Stranger rapes
- Date rapes
- Spousal rapes
Date rapes and spousal rapes often are he said/she said cases. Stranger rape cases often boil down to identification and forensics. All sexual battery cases require a zealous defense because of the harsh prison sentences and collateral consequences (namely sex offender registration) that accompany a conviction.
A sexual battery involves a nonconsensual sexual act – that is, contact or penetration of another person’s mouth, anus, or vagina using a sexual organ or object. Sexual battery is what has been traditionally referred to as a “rape” charge.
Aggravated sexual battery is more serious than a standard sexual battery charge. It involves aggravating circumstances such as where the victim is helpless to resist, where the victim has been drugged, or the victim is mentally incapacitated. A great example of an aggravated sexual battery involves charges alleging that the defendant used a “date rape drug” to incapacitate the alleged victim.
The most serious sexual battery offense under Florida Law is known as Capital Sexual Battery. This is Sexual Battery on a Child Under the Age of 12 and is committed when a person has oral, anal, or vaginal contact with a child under the age of 12. Consent is not an element of the offense or a defense, meaning that a child under 12 cannot consent to the sexual act by law. If the defendant is older than 18 years old, then the punishment for Capital Sexual Battery is life imprisonment.