From CT Insider:
A Connecticut lawmaker says she plans to propose legislation making it easier to prosecute sexual assault cases involving people too intoxicated to consent – an issue spurred by rape allegations at Cornell University.
State Sen. Sujata Gadkar-Wilcox, D-Trumbull, a 2001 Cornell graduate, said in a phone interview Monday that she wants to revisit how Connecticut law treats voluntary intoxication in sexual assault cases.
Under the law, a person can be charged with first-degree sexual assault when they engage in sex with someone who is mentally incapacitated, meaning they can’t control their behavior because they were drugged against their will.
But advocates say that definition can hinder prosecutors in cases when someone voluntarily consumed alcohol or drugs and became too intoxicated to consent. They call it the “voluntary intoxication loophole,” and it has come under renewed scrutiny in New York following the allegations at the Ivy League institution situated there.
“It doesn’t matter whether you initially voluntarily consumed that alcohol or whether it was given to you without your knowledge,” Gadkar-Wilcox said. “It should be based on your condition at the time of the actual offense or the actual act.”
Full report here
