HOUSE BILL NO. 2535 Offered January 10, 2007 Prefiled January 9, 2007 A BILL to amend and reenact § 18.2-67.4 of the Code of Virginia, relating to what constitutes sexual battery. ---------- Patron-- Landes ---------- Committee Referral Pending ----------

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1.  That § 18.2-67.4 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 18.2-67.4. Sexual battery.

A. An accused is guilty of sexual battery if he sexually abuses, as defined in § 18.2-67.10, (i) the complaining witness against the will of the complaining witness, by force, threat, intimidation, or ruse, (ii) an inmate who has been committed to jail or convicted and sentenced to confinement in a state or local correctional facility or regional jail, and the accused is an employee or contractual employee of, or a volunteer with, the state or local correctional facility or regional jail; is in a position of authority over the inmate; and knows that the inmate is under the jurisdiction of the state or local correctional facility or regional jail, or (iii) a probationer, parolee, or a pretrial or posttrial offender under the jurisdiction of the Department of Corrections, a local community-based probation program, a pretrial services program, a local or regional jail for the purposes of imprisonment, a work program or any other parole/probationary or pretrial services program and the accused is an employee or contractual employee of, or a volunteer with, the Department of Corrections, a local community-based probation program, a pretrial services program or a local or regional jail; is in a position of authority over an offender; and knows that the offender is under the jurisdiction of the Department of Corrections, a local community-based probation program, a pretrial services program or a local or regional jail.

B. Sexual battery is a Class 1 misdemeanor.