Criminal Law Newsletters

Aggravated Sexual Assault

A person commits the offense of aggravated sexual assault when he or she intentionally or knowingly, without another person's consent, causes the penetration of the anus or the female sexual organ of another person, causes the penetration of the mouth of the other person with a sexual organ, or causes the sexual organ of the other person to contact or to penetrate the mouth, anus, or sexual organ of the person or any other person.

Bigamy

A person commits the offense of bigamy when he or she is legally married and when he or she marries or purports to marry another person, who is not his or her spouse. A person also commits the offense of bigamy when he or she is not legally married and when he or she marries or purports to marry another person who is legally married.

Disorderly Conduct and Public Intoxication

A person commits the offense of disorderly conduct when he or she knowingly or intentionally engages in an act that is offensive to the public order. Examples of disorderly conduct include using abusive language in a public place, making an offensive gesture in a public place, creating a noxious odor in a public place, making unreasonable noise in a public place, fighting in a public place, or discharging a firearm in a public place.

Search & Seizure - Investigative Stops

If a police officer has a reasonable basis for believing that a person is involved in criminal activity or is about to be involved in criminal activity, the officer has a right to make an investigative stop of that person. Another name for an investigative stop is a "Terry Stop," which name is taken from the United States Supreme Court case of Terry v. Ohio. The officer may make the stop even though he or she does not have probable cause for an arrest. The purpose of the stop is to investigate criminal activity and not to make an arrest.

Search & Seizure - School Searches

The protection of the Fourth Amendment of the United States against unreasonable searches and seizures did not traditionally apply to searches of students in schools because school officials are not law enforcement officials and because they are given permission to act on behalf of the students' parents while the students are in school. The law in this area changed in 1985 when the United States Supreme Court held that school officials act as representatives of a state when they conduct searches and that the Fourth Amendment applies to searches by the school officials on school property.