State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver — under fire for mishandling the Vito Lopez sexual-harassment scandal — yesterday championed a bill that would expand the definition of rape.
The state Assembly unanimously passed the bill that would expand the state’s rape laws. It was written after the current law led to a mistrial on the rape charges against an NYPD cop who brutally raped a Bronx schoolteacher.
Silver yesterday proudly put out a press release touting the passage of the bill, which would broaden the definition of rape to include oral and anal penetration, which are currently considered only a “criminal sexual act.”
“Rape is rape, it is awful and it is something that cannot be justified or excused,” Silver said.
The current law classifies only vaginal penetration as rape.
The passage comes on the same day the state Legislative Ethics Commission slapped Lopez with a $300,000 fine for sexually harassing women in his office. Silver caught heat for authorizing hush money for women Lopez groped.
The new bill was inspired by the attack in 2011 on a schoolteacher raped at gunpoint by off-duty cop Michael Pena.
The jury convicted Pena on criminal-sexual-act charges but not rape because three jurors said penetration could not be proven.
“By amending the current law, we recognize the trauma suffered by victims and ensure the rapists are effectively prosecuted,” Silver said.