Sexual battery.

Assembly Member Soria's legislation adds hospital employment status as an aggravating factor in sexual battery cases where the defendant worked at the facility where the offense occurred and the victim was either under their care or seeking medical treatment. The measure amends California's sexual battery statute, which currently considers employer-employee relationships as a sentencing factor in felony convictions.

The bill maintains existing penalties for sexual battery, which can be prosecuted as either a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in county jail and a $2,000 fine, or as a felony carrying two to four years in state prison and fines up to $10,000. The statute defines sexual battery as non-consensual touching of intimate parts for sexual gratification or abuse under various circumstances, including when victims are restrained, institutionalized for medical treatment, or unconscious of the act's nature due to fraudulent representation of professional purpose.

For implementation, courts would incorporate the new hospital-related aggravating circumstance into sentencing decisions for felony sexual battery convictions, alongside the current consideration of employer-employee relationships. The bill specifies that while it creates a state-mandated local program by modifying criminal penalties, local agencies and school districts are exempt from reimbursement requirements under the California Constitution.