Under Penal Code § 269 PC, aggravated sexual assault of a minor is a grave offense that carries harsh legal consequences. California’s prosecution and law enforcement agencies vigorously investigate these cases. Your single accusation could start a thorough investigation by several agencies, including Child Protective Services.

The penalties after a conviction could extend beyond imprisonment, damaging your reputation and affecting your relationships and prospects. With such severe consequences, you should retain an experienced criminal defense lawyer. They should safeguard your rights while defending your freedom.

An Overview of Aggravated Assault of a Child

According to Penal Code 269, aggravated sexual assault of a minor occurs when you perform specific sexual acts with a minor who has not reached the age of 14. Aggravated sexual assault of a child applies only when you are at least 7 years older than the victim. You are only guilty if you perform specific sexual acts accompanied by aggravating circumstances, such as:

  • The use of force
  • Duress
  • Menace
  • Fear of being hurt physically

Sexual conducts that qualify as aggravated under PC 269 include sodomy, oral copulation, rape, and penetration using a foreign object. PC 269 allows the prosecution to prosecute each sexual act as a distinct charge, even if you performed all of them on the same child in a single event.

The Different Sexual Acts Stipulated Under Penal Code 269

According to Penal Code 269, the prosecution must prove specific sexual acts outlined by California law to establish a charge of aggravated sexual assault of a child. These acts include the following:

Sodomy

Under Penal Code 286, sodomy refers to the non-consensual penetration of the anus of your victim with your penis. When you penetrate the anus of a minor under 14 using force, duress, menace, or fear of harm, you could also be prosecuted under PC 269.

Rape

Rape, per penal code 261, refers to non-consensual sexual intercourse with your victim. You can be prosecuted under PC 269 if you use force or duress to make a child under 14 comply with having sexual intercourse with you. Your victim, however, must be at least 7 years younger than you.

Oral Copulation

Penal Code  287 defines oral copulation as the act of putting your mouth or tongue on another person's genitals or anus sexually without their permission. An aggravated sexual assault under Penal Code  269 occurs when you place your tongue or mouth on the genitals or anus of a child under 14, and you do so using force, coercion, or psychological manipulation to force the minor to comply.

Sexual Penetration Using a Foreign Object

Under Penal Code 289, it is a crime to penetrate the genital or anal openings of another person with an object or a body part other than the penis without their consent. When you penetrate the anus or genitalia of a minor under 14 with a foreign object and do so using force, coercion, and psychological manipulation, you commit aggravated sexual assault of a minor under Penal Code 269.

Elements that a Prosecutor Must Prove

A successful Penal Code 269 conviction requires that the prosecution establish certain elements beyond what a reasonable person would doubt. These elements determine if the case presented to the court qualifies to be prosecuted under PC 269. They include the following:

  • Qualifying Sexual Act

You are only guilty of violating PC 269 if you performed certain specific sexual acts such as sodomy, oral copulation, sexual penetration with a foreign object, or rape of a minor under 14 years. It also applies if you did so using force, threats, or coercion.

  • Your Victim’s Age

To be convicted under Penal Code 269, you must have performed specific sexual acts on a minor below the age of 14. Your victim must also be at least 7 years younger than you at the time of the offense.

  • Use of Force Fear or Coercion

PC 269 requires that the sexual act between you and the minor occurred because of your forceful conduct or after you threatened the minor that you would harm them or those close to them. To prove aggravated sexual assault of a minor, the prosecution must show that you applied physical strength or made threats and used psychological pressure to control and frighten your victim.

  • Lack of Consent

Under Penal Code 269, the prosecution can establish a lack of consent by demonstrating that the victim is under 14. Children automatically lack the legal capacity to grant consent.

  • You had the Intention

To secure a conviction, the prosecution must prove beyond reasonable doubt that you purposefully performed the qualifying act on a child below 14 using force, duress, or coercion. You are guilty if you chose to perform the sexual assault on purpose and knowingly, and it was not accidental. You also knew that your victim was a minor below 14 and still engaged in the sexual conduct.

The jury requires all elements to be fully established before they can convict you of aggravated sexual assault of a child.

Definition of Different Terms

Duress

You commit duress when you force your victim to comply with your sexual demands through threats, psychological manipulation, or coercion. You use duress by threatening to harm the victim, their family members, or people they are close to.

For example, if the alleged victim is your dependent and you threaten to leave them or harm them if they do not comply, this qualifies as duress. To convict you of using duress to sexually assault a minor, the court will examine your victim’s age, your relationship, and the aggravating factors to determine whether you are guilty of violating PC 269.

Force

Under Penal Code 269, force means applying physical strength or violence to dominate your victim’s ability to resist. While at it, you use different methods, such as confining your victim physically or actual physical restraint with enough strength to stop your victim from resisting.

You do not have to leave physical marks on the victim to be considered guilty. Any amount of force, no matter how slight, that forces your victim to comply with your demands qualifies as aggravated assault.

Menace

A threat through menace occurs when you use intimidation to create fear in your victim about imminent danger. Menace is more of verbal threats and weapon display than actual physical force. Your victim must believe that harm is about to come to them or their family members if they do not comply.

Fear

Fear occurs when you put your victim in an intense state of mental disturbance and deadly anxiety about imminent danger. Your victim is in a state of fear due to your direct physical threats, verbal intimidation, or coercion.

The prosecution must show that the fear was genuine (the victim felt it) and reasonable (a person in the same situation would feel the same way).

Examples of Scenarios that Demonstrate a Violation of PC 269

Jake, who is 21 years old, physically restrains Job, his 12-year-old brother, before sodomizing him. Here Jake is guilty of aggravated sexual assault of a minor because he penetrated the anus of a minor by use of force. Also, his victim is 9 years younger than him.

Alexa, a 22-year-old female family friend of 13-year-old Esther, threatens that she will harm Esther's parents unless she engages in oral sex with her. Here, Alexa is guilty of violating PC 269 because it instilled fear in a minor to make them comply with their sexual wants.

Legal Penalties for Violating PC 269

A PC 269 violation is one of the most severely punished criminal offenses because the victims are minors below 14 years old. A conviction could affect you for a lifetime and damage your prospects for the future.

You will not only face court orders, but you will also experience social stigma, and your future employment, education, and housing opportunities will also be affected. You want to comprehend possible sentencing to build solid defenses. An experienced attorney can represent you by collecting evidence to support your innocence. They can also convince the judge to reduce or dismiss your charges.

A violation of Penal Code 269 could have you arrested for committing a felony. A state prison sentence of at least 15 years would be the minimum penalty after a conviction. Your prison term could extend indefinitely as a result of the crime conditions, including how severe the injuries to the victim were and the severity of the offense.

Consecutive Prison Terms

Penal Code 269 differs from other laws as it requires you to serve a separate prison term if you are convicted of multiple criminal offenses. This means you must serve each count's sentence separately, one after the other.

For example, if you were charged with committing sodomy and rape using aggravating factors such as force or menace on the same victim or different victims. In that case, the court will sentence you to serve time for sodomy and rape separately.

This means that if the judge convicts you to serve 15 years for the rape crime, after 15 years, you begin serving time for sodomizing your victim. Consequently, if you committed multiple counts of offenses, your prison sentences could even exceed a lifetime.

Mandatory Sex Offender Registration

A Penal Code 269 conviction requires you to register as a sex offender for life per PC 290. This requirement could fundamentally transform your life. Megan’s Law website makes your personal information, such as name, photograph, and address, available to the general public. This could adversely affect your chances of securing housing, employment, or education sponsorship opportunities.

You must comply with residential restrictions prohibiting living near schools, parks, or other designated areas frequented by children. Employment opportunities will be limited, especially for positions that exclude people with sex offender status or require a clean criminal record. For example, you cannot be a teacher or a coach training minors.

If you do not comply with this requirement, you could face felony charges and suffer additional consequences.

Additional Consequences

  • Social Stigma

A conviction for aggravated sexual assault of a child leads to severe social discrimination. The consequences will destroy your ability to maintain healthy relationships with family members, friends, and community members. After completing their sentence, many convicted people encounter social isolation and struggle to rejoin society.

  • Loss of Your Gun Rights

Based on California Penal Code 29800, anyone convicted of a felony permanently loses their ability to purchase, possess, or own firearms. A conviction of Penal Code 269 is a felony; therefore, this requirement also applies to you once you are convicted.

  • Immigration Consequences

Under federal immigration law, a conviction of aggravated sexual assault of a child if you are a non-U.S. citizen results in an aggravated felony classification. If you have an aggravated felony conviction, you face deportation while losing your ability to reenter the United States and your eligibility to gain citizenship.

  • Professional Impact

You risk losing your license after your conviction if you are a professional license holder (such as a lawyer, teacher, or healthcare provider).

Legal Defenses to PC 269 Charges

With such life-altering consequences, you want to build strong defenses to convince the judge of your innocence or have them reduce your charges. Some of the defenses your lawyer could employ in your defense include the following:

False Accusations

A wide range of personal conflicts and factors, such as rivalries, family disputes over child custody, and vengeful motives, may drive your accuser to make completely false sexual abuse allegations against you. Your defense attorney will reveal contradictions within your accuser's statements to reduce their credibility.

Your lawyer can detect inconsistencies in the statements given by your accuser and prove that they are indeed false. If the prosecution has no evidence other than the accuser’s word, your attorney could use this opportunity to discredit the prosecution's case.

The Alleged Victim was Not Under 14

To prosecute you per Penal Code 269, the prosecution must prove that the victim was under 14 when the offense occurred. Your lawyer could argue that the alleged victim was over 14 at the time the crime occurred. They could do this by presenting evidence such as government-issued IDs, birth certificates, and school records.

This defense mainly seeks to disprove the application of PC 269 to your charges. If the prosecution cannot prove the alleged victim's age, this could weaken their case against you. This may result in the dismissal of your charges. The judge could also reduce your charges to statutory rape if, indeed, your victim was 14 years and older but below 18. Therefore, you could face reduced penalties.

Insufficient Evidence

Under the law, the prosecution team must prove your guilt to a standard where any reasonable person would not doubt that you are guilty. If there are inconsistencies in the prosecution’s case or a lack of evidence, such as a lack of DNA analysis or eyewitness testimony, it could weaken the prosecution's case. Your lawyer could argue that there is insufficient evidence; this could lead to the dismissal of your case.

Mistaken Identity

You could be a victim of mistaken identity, especially if the alleged victim did not have a personal relationship with the perpetrator. Your accuser can identify you wrongfully due to stressful circumstances, traumatic situations, or police procedures that suggest that you are the perpetrator.

Your defense attorney could present evidence such as an alibi, GPS data from your phone, receipts, text messages, or CCTV footage to argue that you were not at the crime scene.

Your lawyer could also challenge the method used by law enforcers in the identification process. At times, law enforcers may use suggestive identification processes involving single photo displays or line-up guidance by pointing at you so that the victim can identify you as the perpetrator. If your lawyer can present evidence showcasing this, the charges against you could be dismissed.

Coerced Confessions

Law enforcers are not supposed to force you to confess through intimidation, deception, or physical coercion. The Fourth Amendment acts as a shield as it prohibits the admissibility of confessions made through coercion from law enforcers.

Your confession should be voluntary and without any intimidation. If the police used forceful questioning, extended interrogation methods, prevented you from having an attorney, or promised that you would not be convicted, they were coercing you to make a confession that could incriminate you.

Your lawyer will ask you about the interrogation to find out if there was any coercion used. If you were a victim of coercion, your attorney could argue in court, weakening the prosecution’s case against you.

Find a Sex Crimes Defense Lawyer Near Me

Aggravated sexual assault of a child per Penal Code 269 is a grave offense that carries severe penalties, including lengthy prison sentences and lifetime sex offender registration. Mounting a strong defense could protect your rights and future. If you or someone you know is facing these charges in the Los Angeles area, contact The LA Criminal Defense Law Firm for legal counsel. Our experienced attorneys are ready to help you build a solid defense, challenge the prosecution’s case, and protect your rights. Call us today at 310-935-1675 for a confidential consultation with our lawyers.