Court Opinion

ID: 9629568
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 09:45:03.371871+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:07:21.148987
License: Public Domain

CIRILLO, President Judge Emeritus,
concurring:
¶ 1 I join in the majority’s opinion fully, but I wish to add the following brief comments in order to make explicit what I believe is already implicit in the majority’s reasoning. We do not today hold that every indecent assault is an attempted sexual assault, but only that the one before us is.
¶ 2 Pasley was convicted of attempted sexual assault and corruption of minors, as acknowledged by the majority. He was sentenced on each of these convictions. In the same proceeding, however, he was also convicted of indecent assault and simple assault, violations of 18 Pa.C.S. §§ 3126 and 2701, respectively.4 I believe it is important to acknowledge this fact in light *525of the clarification of the law today’s case provides.
¶ 3 This case involves the distinctions between the crimes of indecent assault and attempted sexual assault. Crimes such as these are a scourge upon our society, and we should countenance no legal loophole diminishing or downgrading any variety of them. Today this court makes it clear that, under our existing criminal statutes, what Pasley did may be punished more severely than as provided in the, indecent assault statute, even where, as here, there was insufficient evidence of forcible compulsion to support a conviction of attempted rape.
¶4 Attempted sexual assault and indecent assault are graded differently, leading to a difference in allowable penalties. Indecent assault is graded as a second-degree misdemeanor (unless the victim is under the age of 13), and such a crime carries a longest allowable minimum sentence of one year of imprisonment, plus a $5,000.00 fine. 18 Pa.C.S. §§ 3126, 1104. In contrast, attempt under section 901 of the Crimes Code takes on the grading of the most serious crime which was attempted, and sexual assault is a second-degree felony. 18 Pa.C.S. §§ 905, 3124.1. The longest allowable minimum sentence for a second-degree felony is five years of imprisonment, plus a $25,000.00 fine. 18 Pa. C.S. § 1103.
¶ 5 The differences in grading and sentencing between these crimes are a reflection of the differences in their elements. Indecent assault involves indecent contact under a listed variety of circumstances, including the absence of the victim’s consent.5 18 Pa.C.S. § 3126. That crime requires no proof of an intentional and substantial step toward achieving non-consensual sexual intercourse with the victim. Attempted sexual assault does require such proof. An act constituting indecent assault may well be, in part, proof of a substantial step toward that objective, as it was here.
¶ 6 The evidence together with all the inferences more than supports the conviction in this particular case. Therefore, with the above clarification, I join the majority.

. Pasley was not sentenced separately on these offenses. He had also been charged with attempted rape, but the judge conducting the bench trial granted a defense motion for judgment of acquittal on that charge after finding insufficient evidence of forcible compulsion.

. "Indecent contact” is defined at 18 Pa.C.S. § 3101: "Any touching of the sexual or other intimate parts of the person for the purpose of arousing or gratifying sexual desire, in either person.” Pasley does not question the propriety of his conviction for this offense. He questions only the sufficiency of the evidence for attempted sexual assault.