An Iowa high school male was charged with a felony sex offense after an incident with a female student. After discovery, the State and defendant entered a plea agreement to the misdemeanor charge of Assault Causing Bodily/Mental Injury. At sentencing, the associate district court granted the defendant a deferred judgment. However, the court imposed sex offender treatment as a condition of probation.
Zenor sought a discretionary appeal because guilty plea contained no admission or factual finding of sexual misconduct. Moreover, Zenor urged that imposing the condition of sex offender treatment should be vacated based it was unreasonable, did not fit the crime or the individual, and exceeded the probationary goals outlined under Iowa law. The Iowa Court of Appeals agreed, holding there was “not a sufficient nexus between the crime and requirement defendant complete sex offender treatment as part of his probation. . . ” As a result, the appellate court vacated defendant’s sentence and remanded for resentencing.
State of Iowa v. Hauck, No. 16-0858