Legislation to Upgrade Sexual Crimes on Minors by Authority Person Passes House, Moves to Senate for Consideration

House Bill 355 recently passed the House to increase the criminal grading to a felony for persons who engage in sexual contact with a minor in their professional care while being peace officers or school employees.

Among the 26 co-sponsors of Representative Chris Pielli’s (D-Chester) bill are Bucks County Republican Reps. Joe Hogan and Kristin Marcell.

Hogan worked to amend this language to expand the scope of the criminal conviction to include other crimes such as human trafficking, he said.

“This was necessary because unfortunately, as crime evolves, the criminal convictions also evolve. The amendment added criminal convictions that were added to the Crimes Code so predators could not benefit from unintentional loopholes in our code.”

Pielli introduced the legislation by saying “It’s imperative that we take steps to keep our children safe from predators who might abuse their position to corrupt children.”

After passing the House unanimously, the bill now moves to the Senate.