(Austin, TX) -- A Texas Senate committee is taking steps to increase the penalties for groping or unwanted sexual touching. The committee voted on Tuesday to create a new crime known as indecent assault, which would land offenders in jail.
GOP Senator Charles Perry of Lubbock filed a bill to make indecent assault a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a four-thousand-dollar fine. Current Texas law treats groping like a traffic ticket, with a maximum fine of 500 dollars and no jail time, even for repeat offenders.