LA- House sex-offender bills include different age limits

5-13-2008 Louisiana:

The state attorney general’s effort to tweak sex offender laws ran into problems Wednesday in a House committee from a legislator who said the changes lowered the age of consent for sexual relations.

The House Committee on the Administration of Criminal Justice approved two measures that have an opposite outcome.

House Bill 867 changes the age when soliciting sex becomes a crime to 17 years old and under. The other bill, House Bill 770, leaves the age at 18.

HB867, sponsored by Rep. Damon Baldone, D-Houma, makes the technical wording changes he said closes loopholes that could allow sex offenders to challenge the law constitutionally.

Assistant Attorney General Steve Martin argued the way the law reads, an offender could challenge the constitutionality of an arrest for soliciting sex from a 17-year-old on the Internet or by a cell-phone text messaging because minors that age can legally agree to have sex.

If found unconstitutional, then all the offenders arrested under the law could be freed, he said.

“I don’t agree with that. I want to keep it at 18 years,” said state Rep. Hunter Greene, R-Baton Rouge.

He said no appellate court has yet addressed the issue Martin hoped to fix in HB867.

He said the effect of the state attorney general’s bill would to make the age of consent 17, instead of 18.

Greene’s HB770 also tweaked the law forbidding the sexual solicitation of minors. Greene’s measure addressed some of the technicalities of when and how the initial contact takes place. Greene left the age at 18.

The committee attempted to amend Greene’s measure to change the age from 18 years old to 17, essentially to coincide with HB867. The committee voted down the amendment with five voting for and seven voting against the change.

The panel then approved Greene’s legislation without objection.

Both bills – with different ages – go to the House floor for debate. ..more.. by MARK BALLARD , Advocate Capitol News Bureau