Opinion ID: 2123840
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Assault with intent to commit sexual abuse and simple assault.

Text: Assault with intent to commit sexual abuse under Iowa Code section 709.11 occurs when a person: (1) commits simple assault under section 708.1, with (2) the intent to commit sexual abuse. Iowa Code § 709.11 (1991). Simple assault under Iowa Code section 708.1 is: (1) an act which is intended to cause pain or injury to or which is intended to result in physical contact which will be insulting or offensive to another, coupled with the apparent ability to execute the act; (2) an act which is intended to place another in fear of immediate physical contact which will be painful, injurious, insulting, or offensive, coupled with the apparent ability to execute the act; or (3) intentionally pointing any firearm toward another, or displaying in a threatening manner any dangerous weapon toward another. Iowa Code § 708.1 (1991). We believe that the legislature recognized that an adult may have contact with a child which that child may not recognize as inappropriate; a sex act with a child may not necessarily occur by force or against the child's will. Consistent with this principle, it is also possible that a sex act performed with a child may not be painful, injurious, insulting, or offensive to that child or place the child in fear of immediate physical contact which will be painful, injurious, insulting, or offensive. In State v. Mateer , this court faced the question of whether simple assault was a lesser included offense of indecent contact with a child. We stated: Assault does not fit the indecent contact mold. The third element of assaultthat the intended physical contact must be painful, injurious, insulting or offensive to the victimis not an element of indecent contact with a child. A consenting child may be the victim of the primary offense even though the physical contact was not painful, injurious, insulting or offensive to the victim and therefore not by definition an assault. Defendant has cited neither legal authority nor persuasive rationale for his contention that the acts made criminal by section 709.12 are necessarily painful, injurious, insulting or offensive as a matter of law. State v. Mateer, 383 N.W.2d 533, 537 (Iowa 1986) (emphasis added). In State v. Tague , we held that assault was not a lesser included offense of sexual abuse in the third degree when the sexual abuse charge is founded upon the performance of a sex act with a child. State v. Tague, 310 N.W.2d 209, 213 (Iowa 1981). We stated that while assault may be a lesser included offense of sexual abuse in the third degree when that violation involved commission of a sex act by force or against the will of the other participant, assault was not a lesser included offense when the victim was a child and the consent or will of the child was irrelevant. Id.; see also Lampman, 345 N.W.2d at 145 ([A]ssault requires proof of intent to either cause pain or injury or other offensive contact or fear of such contact while sexual abuse of a child requires no similar proof of intent since it is a strict liability offense.). Our analysis of the elements of these offenses and our adjudicated cases leads us to conclude that assault with intent to commit sexual abuse and simple assault were not lesser included offenses of sexual abuse in the second degree in this case. Our holding does not conflict with this court's decision in State v. Turecek, 456 N.W.2d 219 (Iowa 1990). In that case, we held that sexual abuse in the third degree, assault with intent to commit sexual abuse, and simple assault are all lesser included offenses of sexual abuse in the second degree. Id. at 223. However, in Turecek, the charge of sexual abuse in the second degree was based upon Iowa Code section 709.3(1) (1987), that the defendant had aided and abetted another in performing sex acts on the victim by force and against the victim's will, without regard to the victim's age. Id. at 221.