In March the State of New York passed a law prohibiting sex between police officers and persons in their custody. In Ohio, sex between persons – even consensual sex – is illegal, and has been for years, if there is a power dichotomy between the persons. In 2014 the Eighth District Court of Appeals, in Cuyahoga County, upheld a sexual battery conviction of a probation officer that engaged in sex with a probationer.
Ohio Revised Code 2907.03 delineates sexual battery and includes numerous prohibitions between persons in authority positions and their subordinates. Health care professionals and patients, teachers and students, prison workers and prisoners, and police officers where the other person is in custody are all prohibited sexual encounters – even if all parties are adults.
In determining the probation officers committed sexual battery by engaging in sex with a probationer, the Court determined
R.C. 2907.03(A)(6) represents an exception to the general rule which permits sexual activity between consenting adults. As reflected in the committee comment, the section proscribes even voluntary sexual activity between an inmate and a person who has supervisory or disciplinary authority over the inmate. The purpose of the statute is to protect from sexual abuse those who come under the care and custody of the State. The statute is directed at those situations where the offender, through power conferred by the State, is able to coerce or force sexual activity by the misuse of that authority.State v. Maresh, 2014-Ohio-3410, ¶ 41 (8th Dist. Cuyahoga)
Ohio Revised Code 2907.03 has effectively determined that a person cannot consent to sexual encounters with another person in certain situations.
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