Opinion ID: 3048933
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Physically helpless.

Text: OR. REV. STAT. § 163.315(1). ORS section 163.305, in turn, defines the terms “mentally defective,” “mentally incapacitated,” and “physically helpless.” Id. § 163.305(3)-(5). To be “mentally defective,” for example, “means that a person suffers from a mental disease or defect that renders [her] incapable of appraising the nature of the conduct of the person.” Id. § 163.305(3). To be “mentally incapacitated,” the victim must have been rendered incapable of appraising or controlling the conduct of the person at the time of the alleged A person commits the crime of sexual abuse in the second degree if he subjects another person to sexual contact; and (a) The victim does not consent to the sexual contact; or (b) The victim is incapable of consent by reason of being mentally defective, mentally incapacitated or physically helpless. OR. REV. STAT. § 163.415(1) (1971). The current version of Oregon’s second-degree sexual abuse statute, codified as ORS section 163.425, contains a more specific definition of the type of “sexual contact” at issue and has also replaced subparts (a) and (b) with the general language “the victim does not consent thereto.” Despite this change, Landino remains good law, and the new language regarding consent still encompasses the four categories of legal incapacity listed in section 163.315. See Stamper, 106 P.3d at 176. UNITED STATES v. BELTRAN-MUNGUIA 6883 offense because of the influence of a controlled or other intoxicating substance administered to the person without the consent of the person or because of any other act committed upon the person without [her] consent. Id. § 163.305(4). Finally, to be “physically helpless,” the victim must have been “unconscious or for any other reason [was] physically unable to communicate unwillingness to an act.” Id. § 163.305(5). Given the applicability of ORS section 163.315 to ORS section 163.425, a perpetrator could commit second-degree sexual abuse by surreptitiously adding to his victim’s drink a drug that affects one’s judgment, thereby rendering her “mentally incapacitated.” She would then be legally incapable of consent even if she participated fully in the sex act. Similarly, the victim could be “mentally defective,” yet fully physically cooperative. Under both those circumstances, a perpetrator would not necessarily have to use, attempt to use, or threaten to use any force above and beyond the force inherent in the act of penetration, see infra pp. 6885, to commit seconddegree sexual abuse. In other words, under such circumstances, a perpetrator would not have categorically committed a “crime of violence,” as the term is defined for purposes of § 2L1.2(b)(1)(A)(ii). [3] To be sure, a victim of second-degree sexual abuse could, in reality, have been subjected to force during the commission of the crime. In defining the term “without [her] consent,” the Oregon state legislature included not only victims “considered to be incapable of consenting as a matter of law,” but also victims who were “forcibly compelled to submit” and victims who did “not acquiesce in the actor’s conduct.” Stamper, 106 P.3d at 176 (citing to the Commentary to Criminal Law Revision Commission Proposed Oregon Criminal Code, Final Draft and Report §§ 105, 106 (July 1971)). But the possibility that extrinsic force was used in some fashion 6884 UNITED STATES v. BELTRAN-MUNGUIA in the commission of the crime does not make it an essential “element” of second-degree sexual abuse. Put another way, even if a defendant did use force to commit his offense, the prosecution bore no burden to prove that fact, as the government could establish lack of consent in some other fashion. Absent such a burden, this portion of § 2L1.2(b)(1)(A)(ii)’s “crime of violence” definition does not categorically apply.