Perez v. State
New Mexico Supreme Court
803 P.2d 249 (1990)
Relevant factsFree
Fifteen-year-old Loretta told Rudy Perez (defendant), then twenty, that she was seventeen, a claim corroborated by another person present, and the two had consensual intercourse. Perez was charged with criminal sexual penetration of a child between thirteen and sixteen by an adult at least four years older, and the trial court refused to let him argue his reasonable mistake as to her age, since knowledge of age was not an element of the crime. Perez was convicted, the court of appeals affirmed, and he appealed further.
IssueFree
Whether mistake of fact may be raised as a defense to a strict-liability crime such as statutory sexual penetration of a minor.