{"id":1600,"date":"2021-01-12T20:29:09","date_gmt":"2021-01-12T20:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/?page_id=1600"},"modified":"2021-01-12T20:29:09","modified_gmt":"2021-01-12T20:29:09","slug":"sexual-exploitation-of-a-minor","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/?page_id=1600","title":{"rendered":"Sexual Exploitation of a Minor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>CR27-521. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vtjuryinstructions.org\/criminal\/MS27-521.htm\">Sexual Exploitation of a Minor (misdemeanor)<\/a>, 13 V.S.A. \u00a7 3258(a), (01\/08\/21)<\/li><li>CR27-526. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vtjuryinstructions.org\/criminal\/MS27-526.htm\">Sexual Exploitation of a Minor (felony)<\/a>, 13 V.S.A. \u00a7 3258(c), (01\/08\/21)<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong>Reporter&#8217;s Note<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The statute criminalizing sexual exploitation of a minor \u201cis intended to protect minors between the ages of sixteen and eighteen who are the victims of sex acts perpetrated by persons who are in a position of power, authority, or supervision over the minors by virtue of specified undertakings, thereby creating an imbalance in the relationship that effectively deprives the minors of being able to consent to the sex acts.\u201d <u>State v. Graham<\/u>, 2016 VT 48, \u00b6 15, 202 Vt. 43. The defendant must have been in the position of power, authority, or supervision at the time of the sex act. <u>Id<\/u>. \u00b6\u00b6 14\u201319 (charges against defendant-teacher properly dismissed because they occurred with high school student during summer break when defendant was between school employment contracts). <em>See also<\/em> <u>State v. Nelson<\/u>, 2020 VT 94, \u00b6 35 (listing elements of crime). The statute defines both a felony and a misdemeanor offense. The Committee has prepared model instructions for both.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The statute contains no explicit intent element, and the same is true of the model instructions. In listing the elements of this crime in <u>Nelson<\/u>, the Supreme Court did not include an intent element. <u>Id<\/u>. However, the Court has also recognized a \u201cpresumption in favor of requiring an\u00a0element\u00a0of mens rea in criminal statutes.\u201d <u>State v. Richland<\/u>, 2015 VT 126, \u00b6 9, 200 Vt. 401; <em>see also<\/em> <u>State v. Stanislaw<\/u>,\u00a0153 Vt. 517, 523 (1990) (explaining that \u201cthe existence of a mens rea is the rule of, rather than the exception to, the principles of Anglo\u2013American criminal jurisprudence[,] . . . [and] unless\u00a0<em>expressly provided otherwise<\/em>\u00a0by the legislature, . . . a crime is composed of an act and an\u00a0intent, which concur at a point in time\u201d ) (emphasis added) (quotations and citations omitted); <u>State v. Beayon<\/u>,\u00a0158 Vt. 133, 135 (1992) (observing that we often have \u201cimplied\u00a0guilty\u00a0intent\u00a0as an\u00a0element\u00a0when none was expressly provided by the statute\u201d). Additionally, the Court has recognized a felony\/misdemeanor distinction in deciding whether an offense requires an intent element or is instead a strict liability offense. <em>See<\/em> <u>State v. Witham<\/u>, 2016 VT 51, \u00b6 14, 202 Vt. 97 (describing \u201cthe severity of the punishment\u201d as the most important factor). Without further direction from the Supreme Court as to whether the sexual exploitation of a minor statute requires an intent element (as to either its felony or misdemeanor version), the Committee leaves it to the trial courts to decide this issue in appropriate cases.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CR27-521. Sexual Exploitation of a Minor (misdemeanor), 13 V.S.A. \u00a7 3258(a), (01\/08\/21) CR27-526. Sexual Exploitation of a Minor (felony), 13 V.S.A. \u00a7 3258(c), (01\/08\/21) Reporter&#8217;s Note The statute criminalizing sexual exploitation of a minor \u201cis intended to protect minors between &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/?page_id=1600\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1600","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1600"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1601,"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1600\/revisions\/1601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vtjuryinstructions.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}