Forced oral sex isn't a crime if the victim is unconscious rules Oklahoma court

In a startling decision an Oklahoma court has ruled that forced oral sex is not a crime if the victim is passed out from drinking. "Forcible sodomy cannot occur where a victim is so intoxicated as to be completely unconscious at the time of the sexual act of oral copulation," ruled the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals.

"We will not ... enlarge a statute beyond the fair meaning of its language," the court said. Although Oklahoma's rape law says rape is rape even if it is committed against someone intoxicated or unconscious, the forcible sodomy law does not contain that same language. Tulsa County Assistant District Attorney Benjamin Fu called the ruling "insane," "dangerous" and "offensive," reports Oklahoma Watch.

The case involved two minors — a 17-year-old boy who was initially charged with rape and forcing a heavily intoxicated 16-year-old girl to give him oral sex in a park. The girl was later found to have a blood-alcohol content four times the legal limit, considered severe alcohol poisoning, and she was falling in and out of consciousness while the two were together, according to several witnesses.

After the defendant brought the unconscious girl to her grandmother's house, her family took her to a local hospital and the boy's DNA was found on her during a sexual assault examination. The defendant claimed the oral sex was consensual, even though the girl said she couldn't remember it occurred.

The rape charge was dismissed, and a county district court judge also dismissed the forcible oral sodomy charge, saying unconsciousness and intoxication are not specifically included in the law's definition of the crime. That ruling was upheld by the appeals decision.

The teen boy's attorney defended his client, saying "there was absolutely no evidence of force or him doing anything to make this girl give him oral sex other than she was too intoxicated to consent."