People play by different rules in Vegas. That’s why what happens in Vegas, typically tends to stay in Vegas too.
Well, of course, that is if you’re not a celebrity.
Yesterday, Las Vegas Police told BuzzFeed News that an unnamed woman alleged that actor, Jamie Foxx, struck her in her face with his penis after she refused to perform oral sex on him at a party.
Foxx’s lawyer, Allison Hart, of Lavely & Signer, wrote to the BuzzFeed News reporter that first authored the article and demanded that BuzzFeed take its title down or correct its title because it read, “Jamie Foxx is accused of sexual assault…”.
In Hart’s legal opinion, Nevada’s laws (NRS 200.366) do not actually define “getting struck in the face by a penis” as sexual assault:
Hart argued that sexual assault in the state requires ‘sexual penetration’
“In other words, under Nevada law, sexual assault is defined as a forcible rape,”
“Accordingly, even if the woman’s absurd claim that Mr. Foxx allegedly struck her in the face with her penis were true, which Mr. Foxx denies, it is not a sexual assault.”
Legally speaking, Hart’s argument probably would not stand a chance in an actual courtroom or in any serious negotiation talks for a settlement.
By strictly reading the text of “sexual assault” under Nevada’s laws, she is correct in saying that there is no exact language for a literal crime of “striking another person in the face with a penis.”
Still, any competent judge or attorney will most likely argue that Nevada’s legislature simply did not contemplate someone actually “getting slapped in the face with a penis” when its lawmakers originally drafted the text for its sexual assault laws.
Furthermore, if their lawmakers knew “getting slapped in the face with a penis” would really become a thing in the future, they most certainly would have included “getting slapped in the face with a penis” under their definition of sexual assault.
Got to respect her moxy in spotting and actually having the nerve to cite this discrepancy though.
In the long run, Hart is definitely not beating these charges for Jamie Foxx based on this small technicality.