<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/5/1620668101913.png" alt="Rep. John Carmichael, D-Wichita, voted in favor a bundle of criminal justice bills but blasted the original bill for covering up a poorly tried case by the attorney general's office. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption>Rep. John Carmichael, D-Wichita, voted in favor a bundle of criminal justice bills but blasted the original bill for covering up a poorly tried case by the attorney general's office. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure>By NOAH TABORDA <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2021/05/10/kansas-lawmakers-make-sexual-extortion-a-crime-raise-penalties-for-eluding-police/">Kansas Reflector</a>TOPEKA — A criminal 
justice bill passed by the House and Senate makes sexual extortion a 
crime, enforces stronger penalties for attempting to elude a police 
officer and allows a spouse to be charged with sexual battery.Senate Bill 60 passed with
 overwhelming bipartisan support, although some lawmakers took issue 
with a provision that amends a state statute dealing with when a person 
can be tried by Kansas courts. The provision arose out of a recent state
 Court of Appeals ruling that Kansas courts only had jurisdiction over 
an out-of-state crime that affected someone in Kansas if the criminal 
statute governing that crime considered the “negative consequences” of a
 crime.Rep. John Carmichael, 
D-Wichita, blasted the provision as an attempt to cover up a poorly 
tried lawsuit by the attorney general’s office where the office failed 
to prove the crime occurred in Kansas. While Carmichael was in favor of 
three provisions of the bill and ultimately voted in favor of the 
measure, he called out this section as a shoddy cover-up.In testimony before the 
Senate Judiciary Committee, a representative of the Kansas Association 
of Criminal Defense Lawyers spoke in opposition to the bill, calling it 
premature because litigation related to the issue is still pending.<a href="http://www.kslegislature.org/li/b2021_22/measures/documents/sb60_02_0000.pdf">SB 60 contains five bills</a>
 that were bundled together when the House and Senate judiciary panels 
came together to iron out policy differences. The measure passed the 
House by a vote of 118 to 3 last week, and the Senate followed 40-0. The
 package now goes to Gov. Laura Kelly for approval.A second provision would 
remove an exemption in current law shielding spouses from prosecution 
for sexual battery. The measure would make it a crime for one spouse to 
touch the other with “the intent to arouse or satisfy the sexual desires
 of the offender or another” without consent.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/5/1620668156040.jpeg" alt="Sen. David Haley praised a provision of the criminal justice bundle removing a spousal exception for criminal battery for not only doing away with an antiquated policy but potentially addressing a growing backlog of sexual abuse cases. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption>Sen. David Haley praised a provision of the criminal justice bundle removing a spousal exception for criminal battery for not only doing away with an antiquated policy but potentially addressing a growing backlog of sexual abuse cases. (Tim Carpenter/Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure>Before
 being added to the crime bundle, the proposed change in law was 
introduced by Rep. Fred Patton, R-Topeka, on behalf of Rep. Brett 
Parker, D-Overland Park, and <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2021/02/11/kansas-lawmaker-wonders-if-marriage-involves-implied-consent-for-sexual-battery/">passed the House 110-13</a>.Sen. David Haley, D-Kansas
 City, said the measure could provide relief to a growing backlog of 
domestic abuse cases yet to or unable to be addressed in Kansas.“Sometimes it’s as clear 
as a bruised person coming in saying, ‘I’ve been abused. I’ve been 
struck. I’m the victim of a battery,’ and the immediate affirmative 
defense is this can’t be prosecuted because we’re married, and this has 
long troubled me, as it should others,” Haley said.In the House Judiciary Committee hearing, nobody testified in opposition to the bill.Patton
 expanded on another provision included in the bundle relating to a law 
described by sexual assault advocates as “archaic” and “misogynistic.”&nbsp;“This
 bill would also prohibit a court from requiring a victim of a crime to 
undergo a psychological examination during the prosecution for such 
crime,” Patton said. “It did pass out of House Judiciary, but it was too
 late to bring it above the floor, so you have not had the chance to 
vote on it before. But again, it was supported by the advocates against 
sexual violence and prosecutors across the state, and it passed 
unanimously on the other side.”The
 rule in Kansas allowing psychiatric or psychological examination of a 
witness stems from a 1979 Kansas Supreme Court case that relied on 
“outdated and false understandings of criminal sexual abuse,” said Todd 
Thompson, of the Kansas County and District Attorneys Association, in 
testimony to the House Judiciary Committee.A similar bill that failed last year&nbsp;<a href="https://www.salina.com/news/20200220/kansas-prosecutors-want-to-ban-shameful-psych-tests-for-rape-victims">targeted evaluations for only victims of sexual abuse</a>, but legislators amended the measure to include victims of all crimes.In
 yet another provision, someone who flees a police officer while driving
 a stolen vehicle would face a level 9 felony. It would also make 
knowingly driving the wrong way to evade an officer a level 7 felony. “There’s
 rampant auto theft in Kansas,” said Sen. Kellie Warren, R-Leawood. “The
 bill amends the penalty as well. Again, a tough-on-crime piece.”Some
 supporters of the bill pointed to incidents like that of Sen. Gene 
Suellentrop, a Wichita Republican who was arrested for fleeing an 
officer after driving under the influence on the wrong side of the 
highway, as a reason to strengthen these laws.&nbsp;The
 final bill included in the package would make it a felony crime to 
threaten to injure a person or the reputation of a person, through the 
distribution of an image, video or other recordings of a person that is 
sexual in nature.“It
 is important to recognize that blackmail, coercion, and abuse of power 
are often used in cases of domestic violence and sexual violence to 
compel a victim to comply with the desires of the perpetrator,” said 
Sarah Rust-Martin, legal and policy director for KCSDV. “All victims 
deserve to be safe from this type of blackmail or intrusion.”

Kan. lawmakers make sexual extortion a crime, raise penalties for eluding police