HOUSE BILL 87

57th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2025

INTRODUCED BY

Dayan Hochman-Vigil

 

 

 

 

 

AN ACT

RELATED TO CRIMINAL SEXUAL CONTACT; ELIMINATING THE REQUIREMENT THAT THE NON-CONSENSUAL TOUCHING BE TO AN UNCLOTHED INTIMATE PART.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

     SECTION 1. Section 30-9-12 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1975, Chapter 109, Section 3, as amended) is amended to read:

     "30-9-12. CRIMINAL SEXUAL CONTACT.--

          A. Criminal sexual contact is the unlawful and intentional touching of or application of force, without consent, to the [unclothed] intimate parts of another who has reached [his eighteenth birthday] eighteen years of age, or intentionally causing another who has reached [his eighteenth birthday] eighteen years of age to touch one's intimate parts.

          B. Criminal sexual contact does not include touching by a psychotherapist on [his] a patient that is:

                (1) inadvertent;

                (2) casual social contact not intended to be sexual in nature; or

                (3) generally recognized by mental health professionals as being a legitimate element of psychotherapy.

          C. Criminal sexual contact in the fourth degree consists of all criminal sexual contact perpetrated:

                (1) by the use of force or coercion that results in personal injury to the victim;

                (2) by the use of force or coercion when the perpetrator is aided or abetted by one or more persons; or

                (3) when the perpetrator is armed with a deadly weapon.

          D. Whoever commits criminal sexual contact in the fourth degree is guilty of a fourth degree felony.

          [D.] E. Criminal sexual contact is a misdemeanor when perpetrated with the use of force or coercion.

          [E.] F. For the purposes of this section, "intimate parts" means the primary genital area, groin, buttocks, anus or breast."

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