Did Al Franken do anything illegal?

[moriah]

92. I hoped you thought my state's law post was interesting.

Just based on laws here, forcibly kissing someone, or even unwanted tongue, isn't a sex crime. The fact I knew this was why, when someone *had* done more but I was 13 and my father would have killed him if he knew everything, said he "tried" to kiss me as my public reason for wanting him out of my life.

I've wondered since if I made the right decision, but my dad landed himself in jail over getting stabby with a guy over a $20 rock of crack a few years later, even if it could have been considered self-defense (he said the other guy started the fight, it rolled onto a second story porch, and he stabbed once to end the fight thinking they were both going to roll off of it if he didn't --judge didn't buy it, said the fight was mutual, so self defense didn't count). I know it wouldn't have been just one stab, and Dad had just been diagnosed with AIDS right before I turned 13. He'd happily have went to jail in those circumstances.

What is considered "sexual contact" here:

"Sexual contact" means any act of sexual gratification involving the touching, directly or through clothing, of the sex organs, buttocks, or anus of a person or the breast of a female.

They also define "sexual intercourse" and the horrific term "deviate sexual activity".

https://law.justia.com/codes/arkansas/2016/title-5/subtitle-2/chapter-14/subchapter-1/section-5-14-101/

Now, whether someone would consider whether Franken got any "sexual gratification" out of taking that photo is questionable, except he definitely sexualized the pose and was grinning.

But the sad fact is that if she was asleep and a pinky touched the vest over her boob... uh, yea. That's technically second degree sexual assault. Fortunately it's obvious there was no touching, just use of angles.