Enticement Lawyer Kansas City, MO

Enticement in the Missouri Revised Statutes

In the Missouri Revised Statutes, the grooming and enticing law is known as “Evie and Sophie’s Law.” The name comes from two children who received over 17,000 messages from an adult who tried to convince the girls to run away to Florida with him.

Under the prior statute, enticement occurred when someone persuaded, solicited, coaxed, enticed, or lured a minor under 17 via words, actions, or electronic communication for the “purpose of engaging in sexual conduct.” This wording had remained unchanged since the original statute was passed in 2002.

The new statute makes several changes to the prior version. The amendments redefine “minor” to include anyone under 18, expanding the scope considerably.

At the same time, the legislature added a Romeo and Juliet exception. Enticing and grooming can only be committed by someone who is more than four years older than the victim. Therefore, a 17-year-old can’t entice or groom someone who is between 13 and 17.

This creates an anomalous result in view of the perceived harm: A 20-year-old can’t entice or groom a 16-year-old, but a 21-year-old can.

Prohibited Communication Under the Enticing and Grooming Statute

The new law revises the list of prohibited actions to include the following:

• Attempting to persuade, solicit, coax, entice, or lure the victim
• Persuading, soliciting, coaxing, enticing, or luring with the intent to prepare, condition, or manipulate the victim

All of the synonyms used to describe the prohibited acts involve influencing the minor into specified forms of sexual behavior. By rewriting the list, the legislature has clarified that the law prohibits the actions themselves rather than the sex act that may or may not result.

Stripping away all of the synonyms used in the statute, a violation can occur in the following two ways:

• Attempting to influence a victim into sexual behavior
• Influencing a victim with the intent of preparing them for sexual behavior

Proving an attempt to influence requires a clear and direct tie between the language and the sexual behavior. Such an attempt might include proposing an in-person meeting for sex or giving reasons for the minor to send explicit videos.

Influencing them to prepare them for sexual behavior is less concrete and, consequently, may be more difficult for the prosecution to prove. It might include the following actions:

• Talking to the minor about sex-related topics
• Finding out when the minor might be alone
• Requesting that the minor keep the communications secret

Under the enticing and grooming statute, the minor doesn’t need to respond to or act on any of these communications. Instead, the accused can be prosecuted for simply raising these topics. Consequently, one of the keys in any prosecution is distinguishing between pure speech and speech intended to influence a minor to act.

Prohibited Sexual Behaviors

The prosecution must prove that the purpose of the prohibited communication was to cause the minor to engage in sexual conduct, a sexual performance, or a commercial sex act.

However, prosecutors don’t need to prove that the minor actually engaged in any of these acts — the mere proposal or discussion is enough to warrant prosecution.

Sexual conduct includes the following:

• Sexual intercourse, meaning male-female genital penetration
• Deviate sexual intercourse, including oral, anal, and object penetration
• Sexual contact with the genitals, anus, or a female’s breast to cause sexual arousal or terror

A sexual performance is any video or live exhibition that features sexual conduct by a child under 18. A commercial sex act is one performed for something of value.

Thus, suggesting or persuading a child to do any of the following would violate the law:

• Engage in genital, oral, anal, or object sex
• Masturbate
• Trade sex videos for money, electronics, or other things of value

These categories cover explicit enticement. However, they might not extend to other cases of enticing or grooming where the accused doesn’t explicitly mention sex acts. In these cases, prosecutors typically argue that the jury must “read between the lines.”

Defenses Against Enticement Charges in Kansas City, MO

The criminal defense strategies your lawyer might make use of in an enticement or grooming case include the following.

First Amendment

The prosecution must prove that you either influenced or prepared the child for sexual behavior. If you only talked about sex-related topics without suggesting any sex acts, your lawyer can argue that your speech was protected by the First Amendment, even if it was inappropriate.

Lack of Intent

Someone may have many reasons to communicate with a child or someone they believe to be a child. For instance, the accused may have been lonely or playing a practical joke. They may not have even believed that they were speaking to a real child.

The prosecution must prove that the defendant intended to influence or prepare the child sexually. If you had a different motivation, you may have lacked the intent necessary for a conviction.

Alibi

Investigators often use forensic analysis to identify the device that sent the allegedly illegal communications. However, analysts can commit errors. The real perpetrator may have spoofed your IP address or hacked your phone or computer to make it appear that the messages came from your device.

Furthermore, this kind of analysis can’t identify who sent the messages. They could have come from a co-worker, roommate, or family member who used your device or logged into your Wi-Fi when sending messages.

Alibi evidence could clear your name. For example, witnesses might testify that they were with you when you allegedly sent the messages. Our team can also hire experts to review the prosecution’s evidence and identify flaws in the technical report.

Entrapment

Many enticement cases result from sting operations. Missouri’s statute expressly forbids you from defending yourself by arguing that you were talking to an undercover officer rather than an actual child. However, you can use an entrapment defense if you had no predisposition to break the law, and the undercover officer used coercion or deception to convince you to do so.

Your lawyer can determine whether you were entrapped by reviewing the communications to see who initiated the talk about sex, who led the discussions, and how you responded.

Penalties for a Conviction of Enticement in Missouri

Enticement is an unclassified felony subject to a sentence of five to 30 years if no sex act occurred and 10 to 30 years if it did. The defendant must serve at least five or 10 years before receiving parole or conditional release, depending on whether a sex act took place.

Moreover, if you took part in a sex act with a minor, you can be prosecuted under the state’s statutory rape, statutory sodomy, child molestation, or child pornography laws. The sentence for this sex crime runs consecutively with the enticing or grooming sentence.