Governor Signs 'Audrie's Law' Toughening Juvenile Sex Crime Statutes

Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday signed legislation known as Audrie’s Law reforming juvenile sex crime laws and named after 15-year-old sexual assault victim Audrie Pott, according to a state senator’s spokesman. The governor’s approval enacts Senate Bill 838, sponsored by State Sen. Jim Beall, D-Campbell, and its language shaped by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, Beall’s spokesman Rodney Foo said.

The law, which had been amended in the Assembly before being passed by the State Legislature in Sacramento and sent to the governor on Aug. 28, was drafted in the memory of Audrie, who hanged herself days after three teen boys sexually assaulted her at a party in Saratoga in 2012. The boys assaulted her as she lay unconscious from drinking alcohol, then took photos of her partly nude body and distributed them electronically to some students at Saratoga High School where they and Audrie went to school, which humiliated her among her classmates, Foo said.

The three boys were tried in closed juvenile court proceedings in San Jose and sentenced to terms of from 30 to 45 days in juvenile hall for sexual assault, according to Foo. The new law would give judges the option to allow the public to view proceedings of juveniles being prosecuted on sexual assault charges involving victims who were unconscious or developmentally disabled.

Another provision of the new statute requires that minors convicted of sexual assault on an unconscious or developmentally disabled victim must complete sex offender treatment programs available in their county of residence, Foo said. Further, the law requires that juveniles convicted of rape, sodomy or oral copulation may no longer have the option of paying a fine or completing community service or a treatment program to get their charges dismissed, according to the spokesman.

By Bay City News

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