'Rape by impersonation' bill stems from 2018 acquittal in Tippecanoe County

A bill working through the Indiana Statehouse would make rape by impersonation a crime, and it stems from a criminal case in Tippecanoe County.

Rape by impersonation a crime.

And it stems from a case here in tippecanoe county.

News 18's joe paul dug into the details of the bill and spoke with its author.

He joins us now in the studio with more.

Joe?

This all started in 2018 when a west lafayette man was acquitted on rape charges.

Prosecutors say he admitted to sliding into bed with a woman who thought she was having sex with her boyfriend.

Critics say he walked free due to indiana's deficient definition of rape.

Negele: "i was mortified after hearing about this case and hearing that ... the law did not protect that victim."

State representative sharon negele is author of a new bill that expands the definition of rape.

Negele: "before everything was based on force and there's just too many situations where that's just not applicable."

The bill stems from donald ward's 2018 acquittal on rape charges.

His case has since been expunged.

Ward was accused of impersonating the victim's boyfriend.

Negele: "we thought the language needed to be very clear that if someone poses as the victim's normal consensual partner, they are removing the victim's right to even consent."

Courtney curtis says the indiana prosecuting attorneys council testified in favor of the bill and helped craft the language.

Curtis: "if this was already on the books, then there are cases that prosecutors have turned down and not filed that they would have been able to file."

But ward's defense attorney, kirk freeman, says the bill wouldn't have changed the outcome of the case.

Freeman: "nobody at ipac prosecuted this, the authors had no idea what happened, all they see is the outrage.

'oh, there was an acquittal and someone got away with something.'

Well, no one got away with anything."

Freeman says the language could pave the way for false rape accusations.

Freeman: "that goes back to, 'well, he told me he was a navy seal, he told me he was a football hero.'" but negele says the language only deals with very specific cases of rape by impersonation.

Negele: "obviously we don't want false accusations to be able to fester either from these changes, but i believe we've really threaded the needle appropriately in this case."

The bill has passed the full indiana house of representatives.

It's been assigned to the state senate's committee on corrections and criminal law, where it's currently awaiting a hearing.

I reached out to tippecanoe county prosecutor pat harrington.

He said he couldn't comment on the bill or the case because it's been expunged.

Sam, back to you.