Case Explained: Kentucky lawmaker proposes criminal charges for adults who groom children • Kentucky Lantern – Legal Perspective

FRANKFORT — Adults who groom children for sex would be subject to criminal charges under a bill proposed in the Kentucky General Assembly, closing a legal gap that let certain perpetrators go unpunished. 

House Bill 4 proposes a range of charges for adults, 18 and older, who groom children with an “intent to entice, coerce, solicit, or prepare the minor to engage in sexual conduct with the person or another person.” 

Up until now, law enforcement has had to wait to charge groomers until they specifically solicited or assaulted a child, Louis Kelly, the commonwealth’s attorney in Boone and Gallatin counties, said during a Wednesday press conference. 

“Crimes are very specific, and sometimes it’s hard to create laws that capture all the behavior that we would want to deter,” Kelly said. “Recently we found … a big gap in behavior that doesn’t rise to the level of an actual sexual solicitation or doesn’t result in a sexual touch or assault, but is nevertheless clearly inappropriate and clearly designed to lead to such things.” 

Sponsor Rep. Marianne Proctor, R-Union, said she wants to stop “any pedophile” from hurting and manipulating children. “I would love (it) if we get 100% of them,” she said.

House Speaker David Osborne, R-Prospect, told reporters Wednesday that the bill is “clearly a priority.” 

“I think anything that we can do to protect the kids in the commonwealth is a good thing,” he said. 

Rep. Kim Banta, R-Ft. Mitchell, is a cosponsor. 

What’s in the bill? 

The bill has two tiers for both adults who groom children under the age of 14 and those in positions of “authority or position of special trust” — such as coaches or teachers — who groom children under the age of 18. 

The first tier is a Class A misdemeanor, unless the minor is younger than 12 years old, in which case it is a Class D felony, according to the bill. For those in trusted positions, grooming a minor is a Class D felony unless the minor is younger than 12, in which case it is a Class C felony. 

The bill lays out exceptions for “lawful or legitimate” communications, including:

• Teaching curriculum on human sexuality or sexually transmitted diseases. 
• The use of a traceable communication system by a school district employee. 
• The diagnosis or treatment of a minor by a health care provider in a health care facility. 
• Age-appropriate conversations about puberty and human sexuality with a minor by the minor’s parent or guardian. 
• Communicating with a minor to determine if the minor is dependent, neglected or abused. 
• Any conversation with a minor that is part of a person’s job-related duties. 

“It has been well crafted to not criminalize good faith and perhaps innocent discussions between adults and minors, even if, perhaps, misguided,” Kelly said. “This has a high burden on law enforcement and a high burden on prosecution to make sure we are targeting people who should know better, who shouldn’t be doing this and are clearly doing it for inappropriate reasons.” 

The bill requires at least two instances of grooming behavior before charges could be brought.

“It’s got to be a pattern of behavior,” Proctor said. “There’s some things you just see it when you see it. So this is a high bar. This is an intent bill. You’ve got to prove intent.” 

Should Kentucky codify this proposal into law, Proctor said, Kentucky would be one of 13 states with similar statutes. 

Why does this legislation matter? 

Shannon Moody, Kentucky Youth Advocates’ chief officer of strategic initiatives, told the Lantern that grooming is often subtle and rooted in a facade of kindness that can confuse children. And, she said, it often leads to abuse. 

“We see a lot of individuals who target kids with difficult home life, and especially kids who maybe feel lonely or isolated,” Moody said. “There’s a lot of perpetrators who identify children with histories where they’re not feeling connected to an adult, and see that as an opportunity.” 

Grooming does not just harm children during their childhoods, Moody said. It can set them up for a pattern of  unhealthy relationships throughout their lives. 

“One of the things that would worry me, if somebody’s experiencing grooming and that behavior is being normalized, is that it starts to normalize bad relationship patterns that you think are okay,” Moody said. “There’s a potential for increased likelihood of experiencing domestic violence or intimate partner violence. It could open the door for somebody to not really understand that that treatment is not okay, and understand what normal relationships should look like.” 

Kentucky has higher rates of domestic violence than the national average: 48% of Kentucky women will experience intimate partner violence or stalking, compared with 47% nationally, the Lantern has reported. About 52% of men in Kentucky will also experience this, which is higher than the national percentage of 44%. 

The definition of “grooming behavior” is vague because it is subtle and varied, Moody said. 

“That’s what’s kind of scary about that,” she said. “It sometimes happens before you even know it.” 

Jordan Turner, the Boone County attorney, said grooming “looks so different when we’re talking about victims who are children versus victims who are adults.” State law already covers behavior that targets adult Kentuckians, she said, such as stalking and harassment. 

“Grooming toward children looks like building relationships, being kind, making children trust you,” she said. “I think the fact that we are calling this out, and we are naming it, is a big success at this point.”