Blindfold Bluff Leads To Conviction

The Iowa Supreme Court affirmed a conviction

In this appeal, we must primarily decide if one person’s consent to engage in a sexual encounter with another, obtained through the other actor’s fraudulent misrepresentations that he is someone else, constitutes a valid consent to engage in the sexual encounter. We conclude such deception does not establish consent to engage in a sexual encounter. We affirm the judgment of the district court and the decision of the court of appeals.

In April 2015, Michael Kelso-Christy created a fake Facebook profile of a man, S.P., who had attended his high school. Posing as S.P., Kelso-Christy began to send Facebook messages to women who also attended school with S.P. The messages informed women that S.P.’s profile had been hacked and that he had created a new one. Then, Kelso-Christy would attempt to solicit nude photographs or proposition the women for sex.

On April 26, Kelso-Christy sent one such Facebook message to S.G. The two began a conversation, as S.G. knew S.P. from high school. Posing as S.P., Kelso-Christy gave S.G. his phone number and the two began texting. The conversation turned sexual in nature. Kelso-Christy repeatedly asked S.G. to send him nude photographs of herself, which she ultimately did. Then, Kelso-Christy, still posing as S.P., suggested the two have a sexual encounter wherein S.G. would be blindfolded and restrained in handcuffs. S.G. agreed and invited S.P. to her home.

Kelso-Christy instructed S.G. to blindfold herself and wait for his arrival, which she did. When Kelso-Christy arrived, he did not say anything, but rather quickly handcuffed S.G. and proceeded to have intercourse. Afterwards, he immediately left S.G.’s home without undoing the blindfold or handcuffs. S.G. eventually freed herself and saw a text message from S.P. saying his brother was in the hospital and he could not stay. S.G. grew suspicious when S.P. stopped responding to text messages and the Facebook profile was no longer active. S.G. also did not see any Facebook posts by others indicating that S.P.’s brother was hospitalized. The next day, S.G. sent a message to the original S.P. Facebook account and determined that someone had been impersonating him.

The court

 The identity of a sexual partner is no mere collateral matter. Women, and men, must be free to decide, on their own terms, who their sexual partners will be. Kelso-Christy’s actions denied S.G. the “freedom of choice” that breathes life into our sexual abuse statutes. Meyers, 799 N.W.2d at 143. That she consented to an encounter with another man is irrelevant. Because substantial evidence in the record supports a finding that Kelso-Christy entered S.G.’s home with the intent to commit sexual abuse, we affirm his conviction.

Dissent

the majority’s holding stands for the proposition that misrepresentation as to the whole in the course of seduction to achieve sexual intercourse constitutes sexual abuse because the misrepresentation may be material to the victim. Specifically as to fraud in the inducement, say for example, John meets a woman on the Internet supposedly named Jane. Jane represents herself on the Internet as a rich business owner who can advance John’s career if they have sex. In reality, Jane is really Cindy who is unemployed and likes to have casual sex with numerous partners. Cindy has been impersonating the identity of Jane to procure sex. John agrees to have sexual intercourse with Cindy based on Cindy’s misrepresentations. Based on the majority’s holding, fraud in the inducement does vitiate John’s consent and permits the State to prosecute Jane for sexual abuse. Again, I emphasize such a holding is inconsistent with that of Bolsinger for the reasons I have already stated in my dissent.

Accordingly, I would reverse the conviction.

Appel, J., joins this dissent.

(Mike Frisch)