Lascivious intent needs to be divorced from children to reduce the risk of a Virginia indecent liberties conviction

Lascivious intent (LI) is an essential element of the Virginia crime of indecent liberties, which crime includes: “Any person 18 years of age or over, who, with [LI], knowingly and intentionally commits any of the following acts with any child under the age of 15 years is guilty of a Class 5 felony: (1) Expose his or her sexual or genital parts to any child to whom such person is not legally married or propose that any such child expose his or her sexual or genital parts to such person; or … (3) Propose that any such child feel or fondle his own sexual or genital parts or the sexual or genital parts of such person or propose that such person feel or fondle the sexual or genital parts of any such child; or (4) Propose to such child the performance of an act of sexual intercourse, anal intercourse, cunnilingus, fellatio, or anilingus or any act constituting an offense under § 18.2-361; or (5) Entice, allure, persuade, or invite any such child to enter any vehicle, room, house, or other place, for any of the purposes set forth in the preceding subdivisions of this subsection.” Virginia Code § 18.2-370. As a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I know that an unpublished Virginia Court of Appeals leaves open the possibility that “sexual… parts” includes female breasts. Zim Mohammad v. Commonwealth of Virginia, Record No. 1775-24-4 (Va. App. 2025) (unpublished). 

When an adult focuses with lascivious intent on female breasts with a minor, they are cruising for a possible bruising in Virginia criminal court

The Virginia Supreme Court already set the stage for Mohammad, when affirming the conviction of a schoolteacher for showing lascivious intent when sending a thirteen year old boy photos of her topless breasts with her areolae covered. Dietz v. Commonwealth of Virginia, 294 Va. 123 (2017). Dietz holds that whether or not the photos of the teacher defendant’s partially covered breasts were of a “sexual part” under the code, that the evidence was sufficient to convict based on the permissible conclusion that she sent the photos with [LI]t, when considering such accompanying talk (which comes across as fantasy talk rather than proposition talk, where only proposition talk should be subject to the indecent liberties statutes) as: “When [the student’s] house was suggested [by the student, for a tryst] Dietz’s only stated reservation was that G.S.’s mother ‘would not let that happen.’ But if they were alone, Dietz continued, she would do ‘[s]o many dirty things’ with G.S., clearly implying unlawful conduct of a sexual nature.” Dietz. Somewhat similarly, in a corollary fashion, the adult Mohammad made the monumental error of showing LI with the breasts of a person he thought was girl, who was being posed as by a male police officer. Mohammad’s proposal for a clandestine meeting with the “girl” broke the camel’s back to get him convicted of indecent liberties: “When Mohammad proposed that he and Steffy meet, they devised a plan to meet up at her home during times that would avoid her parent’s detection. They eventually agreed to meet
at her dad’s apartment on a day that he would be at work.” Mohammad. 

Will successful indecent liberties prosecutions be fewer if potential defendants sear in their mind the image of an adult police officer fishing for arrestees?

If everyone realized that law enforcement officers (LEO’s) are constantly fishing for arrestees, by the officers posing as children, would that reduce the number of adults even risking engaging in sexual communication and expressed lascivious intent by those claiming to be minors? Anthony Robbins once demonstrated successfully breaking a man’s addiction to pizza by inserting disgusting associations with everything about pizza. If it helps to sear in the minds of those at risk of indecent liberties defendants that the would-be minor is in fact an unbathed, completely unattractive police officer, whatever works.

What do I do if charged with a Virginia sex crime?

If you are charged with indecent liberties or another Virginia sex crime (whether with or without alleged lascivious intent), know your right to remain silent with law enforcement officers, and get the advice and assistance of a qualified Virginia criminal defense lawyer. Such charges are serious, and when minors are involved are all the harder to garner sympathy from police, prosecutors, judges or jurors. Make sure that your criminal defense attorney does not judge you, and fully defends you in pursuing your best defense.

Fairfax criminal lawyer Jonathan Katz fully takes the bull by the horns in relentlessly defending you against Virginia felony, misdemeanor and DUI prosecutions. Secure your free in-person confidential consultation about your court-pending prosecution at 703-383-1100, Info@KatzJustice.com and (text) 571-406-7268.