Advocates for sex crime survivors say they are losing patience with Carl Heastie, Speaker of the New York State Assembly.
Heastie wields considerable power in Albany and with two days left in the legislative session, he appears to be using that power to throttle legislation that would strengthen the state’s rape law.
Currently, 92 of the state’s 150 Assembly Members have signed on as co-sponsors of Bill A101, a provision that would make it illegal to have sex with someone who is too intoxicated to consent. Despite having more than enough bi-partisan support to pass the rape reform, Heastie, a Democrat, has so far declined to advance the legislation for a full vote on the floor.
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WATCH HERE“We are actively negotiating this bill and hope to come to an agreement,” said Michael Whyland, a spokesman for Heastie.
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SIGN UP Heastie did not answer when asked with whom he is negotiating or what problems he sees with the rape reform bill as it is written.
The bill itself has already been the subject of debate for more than six years. It was originally proposed in response to a 2019 I-Team investigation, which revealed a letter sent by former Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance to then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo. In the letter, Vance complained that he and other prosecutors around the state have been unable to bring sex crime charges in cases where victims become intoxicated due to their own choices, even if a reasonable person would consider those victims to be incapacitated.
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"For some reason, out of all the major crimes in the state, rape is the only one that is treated differently, so the level of intoxication somehow eliminates the fact that a crime existed."
Lizzie Asher, co-founder of Justice Without Exclusion
More recently, the District Attorneys Association of the State of New York has come out in support of closing what’s known as the "voluntary intoxication loophole."
"The loophole prevents me as a DA from prosecuting cases when somebody, of their own volition becomes inebriated," said Darcel Clark, Bronx District Attorney.
Christina Maxwell, a singer and actor from Manhattan, said the voluntary intoxication loophole denied her a chance for justice after she became severely impaired at a social gathering in 2020.
“I had a couple of cocktails,” she said, “and then this man brought in a third cocktail.”
After drinking that third drink, Maxwell said she began having trouble holding herself upright was later sexually assaulted by the man who provided the cocktail.
“I’m face-planting on the ground. I’m unable to stand. At one point I’m just lying flat on the ground,” she said. “There is no person of any integrity or goodness who would look at someone in that state and say, 'Oh yeah, they can give consent.'"
Maxwell said a later test of her hair revealed the presence of GHB, also known as the date rape drug, but because the test could not establish the exact timeline of when the chemical was ingested, she relied on surveillance video of her stumbling and collapsing to try and convince the NYPD to pursue a sex crime case.
“I did press charges. He was interviewed. He was never arrested,” she said.
The NYPD did not immediately respond to the I-Team’s questions about why charges were not filed in Maxwell’s case. She believes her claims were dismissed because she voluntarily drank alcohol earlier in the night.
Recently, a group called Justice Without Exclusion, has been pressuring Albany lawmakers to prioritize closing the voluntary intoxication loophole. Lizzie Asher, one of the group’s co-founders, said more than two dozen other states make it a crime to have sex with someone too intoxicated to consent. She said it should be a scandal that victims of muggings have more protections under New York’s criminal code than do victims of sex crimes.
"If they were to go to the police department and say, ‘I was mugged,’ no matter how incapacitated that person was, the police wouldn’t say to that person, 'Oh, but you were drunk. Your mugging didn’t happen,'" Asher said. "For some reason, out of all the major crimes in the state, rape is the only one that is treated differently, so the level of intoxication somehow eliminates the fact that a crime existed."
The New York State Senate has already voted to close the voluntary intoxication loophole. Gov. Kathy Hochul declined to say whether she supports the legislation or whether she would sign it if the Assembly were to approve the bill.
