North Carolina § 14-27 - 33. Sexual battery.

§ 14-27. 33. Sexual battery.

A person is guilty of sexual battery if the person, for the purpose of sexual arousal, sexual gratification, or sexual abuse, engages in sexual contact with another person: By force and against the will of the other person; or Who has a mental disability or who is mentally incapacitated or physically helpless, and the person performing the act knows or should reasonably know that the other person has a mental disability or is mentally incapacitated or physically helpless. Any person who commits the offense defined in this section is guilty of a Class A1 misdemeanor. History (2003-252, s. 2; 2015-181, s. 15; 2018-47, s. 4(d).) Editor's Note. - This section was formerly codified as G.S. 14-27.5 A. It was recodified as G.S. 14-27.33 by Session Laws 2015-181, s. 15, effective December 1, 2015. Session Laws 2015-181, s. 48, made the recodification of this section by Session Laws 2015-181, s. 15, effective December 1, 2015, and applicable to offenses committed on or after that date, and further provided that: "Prosecutions for offenses committed before the effective date of this act are not abated or affected by this act, and the statutes that would be applicable but for this act remain applicable to those prosecutions." Session Laws 2018-47, s. 15, provides: "This act does not affect the coverage, eligibility, rights, responsibilities, or provision of State or federal services or benefits for individuals who have been diagnosed with mental retardation and whose diagnosis has not been changed to a diagnosis of intellectual disability." Session Laws 2018-47, s. 16, made the rewriting of subdivision (a)(2) of this section by Session Laws 2018-47, s. 4(d), effective December 1, 2018, and applicable to offenses committed on or after that date. Effect of Amendments. - Session Laws 2018-47, s. 4(d), rewrote subdivision (a)(2). For effective date and applicability, see editor's note. Legal Periodicals. - For article, "The Least of These: A Constitutional Challenge to North Carolina's Sexual Offender Laws and N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-208.18," see 33 N.C. Cent. L. Rev. 53 (2010).