Criminal Exposure for Coercive Sexual Conduct and Recording Threats

Attorney Answer

Yes — what you describe could expose him to criminal liability for both sexual battery and extortion. Your own old remark carries some theoretical risk, but a statement made to him rather than to police is a very different thing from a false report.

What you describe — being grabbed from behind, being told what he wanted, and having to refuse repeatedly and cry before he stopped — fits California's sexual battery statute, which reaches touching an intimate part of another person against that person's will for the purpose of sexual arousal, gratification, or abuse (Cal. Penal Code § 243.4). That statute has both felony and misdemeanor forms; the felony forms require an added circumstance such as unlawful restraint or an institutional setting, and what you describe would most likely fall under the misdemeanor form.

His threat to send the recordings to future partners is a serious and separate issue, but it fits a different statute than people usually expect. California's nonconsensual intimate image law reaches someone who actually distributes such an image — a threat alone, without distribution, does not violate it (Cal. Penal Code § 647(j)(4)). What does squarely cover a threat like this is extortion: obtaining property or other consideration from someone through a wrongful use of fear, including a threat to expose them to disgrace, with consideration expressly defined to include sexual conduct and images of intimate body parts (Cal. Penal Code §§ 518-519). If he used the threat of releasing the recordings to pressure you into anything, that is where it belongs — regardless of whether he ever sent anything.

On your own exposure: California makes it a crime to report to a peace officer that a felony or misdemeanor has been committed, knowing the report to be false (Cal. Penal Code § 148.5). The statute requires an actual report to law enforcement, made knowing it was false. A remark made to him years ago, not to police, is not a report. The same statute would also apply to him if he knowingly makes a false report about you now.

What you can do

1. You can report the assault if you want to. Because of the old remark, it is worth speaking with a California attorney first so you go in understanding your own position — not as a reason to stay silent. 2. Preserve any texts, messages, or recordings relating to the incidents, to the threats about the videos, and to the earlier conversation about the remark. 3. If he threatened to distribute recordings in order to get something from you, document exactly when and how — that is the evidence an extortion complaint rests on. 4. If he does make a report about you, do not respond to police without counsel; that is a situation where having a lawyer speak for you protects you. 5. If you are being harassed or feel unsafe, California civil protective orders are available without any criminal charge being filed first, and are often the faster route to distance.