The Overview

Starting Jan. 1, someone who breaks into a California home and sexually touches a person inside can face a felony charge, not just a misdemeanor. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed Assembly Bill 1741 on Sunday, Sept. 20. ​

The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office pushed for the change after a case in which an unknown man came into an apartment through a sliding glass door and sexually touched a woman in bed beside her husband. Prosecutors could charge it only as misdemeanor sexual battery, according to an Assembly analysis. State law allowed a felony charge only when the victim was under 15 or restrained, or when the attacker intended to commit rape.

What the Law Does

The law adds a new type of sexual battery: sexually touching someone against their will, while inside a home, trailer or the living area of another building that the offender entered without permission. It does not change how state law defines sexual battery.

Prosecutors can charge the new offense either way. As a felony it carries two, three or four years in state prison. As a misdemeanor it carries up to a year in county jail.

Legislative Status

Assemblymember Blanca Pacheco (D-Downey) wrote the bill, and the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office sponsored it. It passed the Assembly 70-0 on May 22 and the Senate 38-0 on Aug. 27, and the Assembly agreed to the Senate’s changes 75-0 the next day, according to the FastDemocracy vote record.

“AB 1741 ensures that California law recognizes the gravity of this crime by allowing it to be charged as a wobbler,” Pacheco told KALW. A wobbler is an offense that can be charged as either a felony or a misdemeanor. The California District Attorneys Association and the California State Sheriffs’ Association also supported the bill.

The California Public Defenders Association, the ACLU California Action and the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights opposed it, according to a Senate Public Safety Committee analysis. Public defenders argued that prosecutors can already charge these cases as assault with intent to commit rape. They also said the bill is broad enough to turn some misdemeanors into felonies that could require sex offender registration.

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