The Denver Gazette

Lawmakers target indecent exposure in front of children

BY HANNAH METZGER The Denver Gazette

In January 2020, two Larimer County sisters ages 14 and 16 were sitting in a parking lot eating a snack after school when a strange man drove up to them. The man raised his pelvis to his window and exposed his genitals to the girls, masturbating in front of them.

The man was immediately apprehended by police who were in the area for an unrelated incident. But after issuing him a summons, the man was released within 15 minutes, before the girls’ father could even make it to the scene.

That’s because, in Colorado, indecent exposure in front of children is only a misdemeanor crime.

“This guy just exposed himself to two minors and he’s driving down the street now,” said Tyler Bandemer, father of the victims. “People should not just be able to go on their merry way. ... It’s just a matter of time before they do it again.”

Colorado lawmakers are now seeking to increase the penalties for indecent exposure in front of children, upgrading it from a class 1 misdemeanor to a class 6 felony.

If passed into law, House Bill 1135 would make it a felony crime if a person over the age of 18 exposes or touches their genitals for sexual gratification while they know they are in the view of a person under the age of 15. Under current law, an offender must commit indecent exposure three times before they are charged with a class 6 felony.

Indecent exposure is the only child sex crime in Colorado classified as a misdemeanor. That means, it’s a felony if an offender shows their genitals to a child online, but it’s only a misdemeanor if they do it in person.

“Colorado is a state that protects children from harm,” said bill sponsor Rep. Dafna Michaelson Jenet, D- Commerce City. “We have strong laws against child sexual abuse, child pornography and child sex trafficking. But in one area we have not recognized the intensity of child sexual abuse: Indecent exposure.”

HB 1135 passed the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday in an 8-5 vote. The bill received bipartisan support, but was only opposed by Democrats.

During committee, the bill was backed by several groups, including the Colorado Children’s Alliance, Organization for Victim Assistance, and law enforcement and district attorney coalitions. However, Mental Health Colorado, the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless and the Office of the State Public Defender stood against the bill.

Opponents argued that the bill would disproportionately harm people with mental or behavioral health disorders.

Lauren Snyder with Mental Health Colorado said people who experience mania and psychosis often take their clothes off in public spaces, particularly homeless people. She spoke of a woman being cared for by the Mental Health Center of Denver who would disrobe and touch herself in front of busy streets whenever she was not doing well.

“Her care providers were terrified that she would be a victim of sexual assault,” Snyder said. “A lot of these individuals will do things that don’t make sense. They put themselves in harms way, as well. This is the nature and a side effect of their mental health condition.”

Proponents of the bill said the felony classification requires the offender to knowingly expose themselves in front of a child for sexual gratification, arguing that this would disqualify the bulk of incidents involving people with mental health issues.

Several members of the Colorado District Attorneys’ Council also emphasized the frequency of these acts by knowing, intentional, repeat offenders.

District attorneys said it is very difficult to catch these offenders and to prosecute them if they are identified, as child victims are less likely to report the crimes. But in the past four years, 90 cases of indecent exposure in front of children have been filed statewide. The average age of the child victims is 11 year old.

“It is a mistake to assume that every single person doing this has some sort of behavioral health or mental health issue that should prevent them from being held accountable,” said District Attorney Gordon McLaughlin of the 8th judicial district. “We need to make a legal distinction that expresses to our community, to our courts, that we take tis behavior seriously.”

McLaughlin represents Larimer County, where Bandemer’s daughters were victimized in the parking lot. Before the offender was even sentenced, he was caught masturbating in front of minors again, this time targeting two teen girls working in a drive-thru, McLaughlin said.

District attorneys and parents of victims detailed incidents of extended family members exposing themselves to young relatives; a man caught masturbating in front of children at a playground in Denver, and then in Adams County two months later; and, a person committing multiple offenses in one day, searching the stairwells and windows of apartment complexes for child victims.

The bill’s other sponsor, Rep. Shannon Bird, said one of her constituents came to her with their own experience. Bird said a mother and her 7-year-old daughter were shopping in a Westminster Walmart when a man followed the child through the aisles, masturbating behind her. Police later discovered that the man had victimized another young girl in the store earlier that same day.

Bird said the 7-year-old girl suffers from night terrors over the incident, having to go to counseling, sleep with her parents and avoid even driving by the Walmart because of the emotional trauma she’s suffered.

“Should we have to wait for three children to be victimized before we recognize the severity of this behavior? No,” Bird, D-Westminster, said. “Our state has a responsibility to stop people from harming others and, importantly, to hold people appropriately accountable for their actions when they hurt someone else.”

By upgrading the crime to a class 6 felony instead of a class 1 misdemeanor, the penalty raises from up to 364 days in jail and/or a fine of up to $1,000, to up to 18 months in prison and/or a fine of up to $100,000.

District attorneys said the felony classification would also mean the offender would get more intensive supervision during probation, there would be more resources dedicated to investigations, and there would be more resources for the treatment of victims.

However, opponents of the bill said the felony status would, in many ways, make it more difficult for offenders to be rehabilitated.

Laurie Rose Kepros, director of sexual litigation for the Colorado Office of the State Public Defender, said offenders do not receive sex offender treatment in prison.

If they don’t go to prison, Kepros said felon sex offenders are barred from housing assistance programs, can’t seal their records, have their photos on the state’s sex offender registration website and can’t request to be removed from the registry for an additional five years compared to misdemeanor offenders.

“It is a label you cannot ever get away from,” Kepros said. “If you go to prison, you don’t get treatment no matter how high-risk you are. ... By the time you go on parole, you’ve lost your housing, you’ve lost your employment, you’ve lost your financial stability, you’ve lost your social support. These are all risk factors. These all make people less safe in the community.”

Rep. Elisabeth Epps, D-Denver, introduced an amendment to the bill trying to limit its scope by only making indecent exposure in front of children a felony if it occurs in an isolated place with no other adults around. The amendment was rejected in a 5-8 vote.

Epps said the amendment was intended to limit felony status to offenders such as groomers and family members, while sparing people who are homeless or who have a mental health crisis in public. She also expressed that she doesn’t believe making offenders felons will make children safer.

Jessica Dotter, sexual assault resource prosecutor of the Colorado District Attorneys’ Council, spoke of one incident where four children were in a hotel hot tub in Summit County when a man masturbated in the hot tub, feet away from the children. That man had two prior sexual offense convictions, Dotter said.

“Why didn’t the felony work the other times? ... What is going to happen between two felonies and a misdemeanor, and three felonies that makes him safer to be amongst us?” Epps said in response. “We cannot keep committing to the things that don’t keep us safe.”

Though, proponents countered that making the crime a felony is intended to send a moral message that this behavior will not be tolerated — a message intended for victims, as well as perpetrators.

“I have to equally wonder, what does it say to the 10-year-old, the 12-year-old, the 13-year-old and the other 10-yearold who saw this defendant’s penis four times that it’s only a misdemeanor?” Dotter said. “That is a statement about how Colorado treats child victims of sex crimes.”

Epps and four other Democrats voted against the bill: Reps. Lorena Garcia of Adams County, Said Sharbini of Thornton, Steven Woodrow of Denver and Jennifer Bacon of Denver. Those representatives are the same five who voted in support of Epps’ amendment.

The bill will now be sent to the House Appropriations Committee to face another vote in the coming weeks.

DENVER & STATE

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2023-03-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-27T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://daily.denvergazette.com/article/281655374327744

The Gazette, Colorado Springs