Committee approves bill to create crime for adulteration by bodily fluid

Working in a family-owned hardware store resulted in a battery of sexual disease tests for Patricia Maahs.

Heading to the House Floor is a bill sponsored by Rep. Debra Hilstrom (DFL-Brooklyn Center) that would expand the crime of fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct and create a crime of adulteration by bodily fluid. Offenders could be subject to up to 10 years in prison and a $40,000 fine. They would also need to register as a predatory offender.

A fiscal note for the bill showed zero cost to the General Fund.

HF889 was approved Wednesday by the House Public Safety and Crime Prevention Policy and Finance Committee. Its companion, SF1293, sponsored by Sen. John Hoffman (DFL-Champlin), awaits action by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Last August, after months of noticing that someone was leaving seminal deposits on and around her desk, Maahs caught a 34-year-old co-worker with his back to her and his hands in front of him near his genitals. When the man noticed Maahs behind him he quickly went into another room and slammed a door. Maahs then noticed a strong odor coming from her coffee cup.

When told by police that Maahs said her coffee had tasted “odd for a couple of months,” the suspect admitted that he had “ejaculated into her coffee twice in the last six months,” according to the criminal complaint, and four other instances where he left seminal fluid on her desk or other items. In previous incidences, Maahs thought that maybe she’d put spoiled creamer in her coffee. 

“I could have picked up anything. I don’t know what this gentleman’s sexual history is,” she continued. “It can happen to any of us. How would you like it if you ended up with a sexually transmitted disease over something this innocuous? You wouldn’t even believe that someone would do this.”

The man was charged with fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct, but the case was dismissed, Maahs said “because there is nothing in the law anywhere to prevent anyone from polluting your food.”

Hilstrom said the district court found that the statutory definition of fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct does not include touching with seminal fluid or sperm in its definition of sexual contact. “It takes an act of the Legislature to correct this omission,” she said.

“Let’s hope this doesn’t happen to folks in the future,” said Rep. Raymond Dehn (DFL-Mpls), “and if it does, we have to have recourse to punish individuals who commit these offenses.”