{"id":658,"date":"2018-05-31T18:15:45","date_gmt":"2018-05-31T22:15:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.clearwatersexcrimeslawyer.com\/?p=170"},"modified":"2026-01-31T09:27:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T14:27:18","slug":"molestation-or-battery-florida-court-weighs-in-on-movie-theatre-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.criminalattorneyclearwater.net\/blog\/molestation-or-battery-florida-court-weighs-in-on-movie-theatre-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Molestation or Battery? Florida Court Weighs in on Movie Theatre Case"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are a number of potential defenses available to a person charged with a Florida sex crime. That includes arguing that he or she should at most be convicted of a lesser crime that isn\u2019t considered a sex offense. Florida\u2019s First District Court of Appeal recently explained<\/a> how judges weigh requests to instruct a jury about lesser offenses.A defendant was charged with lewd or lascivious molestation of a child under the age of 12, stemming from an incident with his stepdaughter at a local movie theatre. Moments into the movie that he had taken the girl to see, he allegedly asked the girl if he could touch her breasts. The girl consented, according to the court, and he proceeded to touch her breasts. The girl told her mother about the incident roughly one year later, after the mother asked the girl specifically if he had ever touched her inappropriately.<\/p>\n

The defendant admitted to the incident and reported himself to the Department of Children and Families. He later testified at trial that he touched the girl\u2019s breasts for approximately two to three minutes and told her that she was “growing up” and “becoming quite the woman.” The trial judge declined the defendant’s request to instruct the jury that he could be convicted of battery \u2013 a lesser offense \u2013 instead of lewd or lascivious molestation. The court did, however, instruct the jury that the defendant could be convicted of attempted lewd and lascivious molestation instead. He was eventually convicted on the actual molestation charge.<\/p>\n

Continue reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are a number of potential defenses available to a person charged with a Florida sex crime. That includes arguing that he or she should at most be convicted of a lesser crime that isn\u2019t considered a sex offense. Florida\u2019s First District Court of Appeal recently explained how judges weigh requests to instruct a jury […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sex-crimes"],"yoast_head":"\nMolestation Battery Weighs Movie Theatre<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Dealing with sex crime charges? See how this ruling on molestation battery weighs movie your defense in Clearwater. 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