States employ a wide choice of terms to describe sexually exploiting victims. Some call it rape, some call it sexual assault, sexual battery, sexual misconduct, and the list goes on. In California, the statutes that address sex crimes using fraud refer to the offense as “sexual battery,” as 49 year old David Wolfsmith of Morgan Hill found out the hard way yesterday.
Wolfsmith, owner of The Wolfpak, a gym located in downtown Morgan Hill, and formerly a high school cross country coach, was booked on Sexual Battery by Fraud as well as child molestation and lewd and lascivious acts against a child. According to Jason Green, a reporter for Mercury News, five victims have come forward. The oldest is in her 50s. Wolfsmith is being held at Santa Clara County Jail and his bail has been set at $100,000.
Sexual Battery by Fraud is limited to fraud in the factum in California’s statutes which means deception as to the act itself, not the actor. While the reasoning behind this absurd limitation is unjustifiable and allows other sexual predators to exploit victims at will, at least the state of California recognizes this very specific variety of using fraud to commit a sex crime.
Click here for the statute or read the excerpt below:
243.4. (a) Any person who touches an intimate part of another person while that person is unlawfully restrained by the accused or an accomplice, and if the touching is against the will of the person touched and is for the purpose of sexual arousal, sexual gratification, or sexual abuse, is guilty of sexual battery. A violation of this subdivision is punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than one year, and by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars ($2,000); or by imprisonment in the state prison for two, three, or four years, and by a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars ($10,000). (b) Any person who touches an intimate part of another person who is institutionalized for medical treatment and who is seriously disabled or medically incapacitated, if the touching is against the will of the person touched, and if the touching is for the purpose of sexual arousal, sexual gratification, or sexual abuse, is guilty of sexual battery. A violation of this subdivision is punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than one year, and by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars ($2,000); or by imprisonment in the state prison for two, three, or four years, and by a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars ($10,000). (c) Any person who touches an intimate part of another person for the purpose of sexual arousal, sexual gratification, or sexual abuse, and the victim is at the time unconscious of the nature of the act because the perpetrator fraudulently represented that the touching served a professional purpose, is guilty of sexual battery. A violation of this subdivision is punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than one year, and by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars ($2,000); or by imprisonment in the state prison for two, three, or four years, and by a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars ($10,000).