Alaska Bill Fixes Sexual Assault Law Gap

0:00It's March 31st. You're listening to Anchorage News today, AI Power Local News. A Juno Lawmaker just dropped House Bill 242 to fix a big hole in Alaska's sexual assault laws for medical providers. Right now, prosecutors struggle if a patient knew the assault was happening during treatment because the law requires the victim to be unaware. This bill, pushed by Representative Sarah Hannon, scraps that unaware part so charges can stick even if folks realize it in the moment. It all kicked off from a high-profile case against a local chiropractor accused of assaulting over a dozen patients. Last September, a jury cleared him on two counts and missed trials hit 14 others with one dismissed over that exact legal gap. Now the team's gearing up for a retrial on April 15th. Victims and advocates are fired up about this. One former patient testified how the courtroom dismissal wrecked her, stressing that knowing doesn't mean consenting, especially under a provider's power.

1:02It's part of a long history, too. Back in the 90s, cases like a gynecologist's conviction sparked similar law tweaks, but they created this new. Snag, prosecutors rarely use the current unaware rule, just seven cases from 2016 to 2022. The bill would ramp up penalties by recognizing the abuse of trust, but it can't touch old cases like this one because of rules against retroactive, harsher laws, lawmakers are keeping the bill, laser focused on ditching that one clause, with hearings pushing it forward. Survivors say pass it now to shield future patients and tackle bigger fixes later. This could be the key to holding providers accountable without the old excuses.