People v. Belfrom

OPINION OF THE COURT

Leroy B. Kellam, J.

Presented for review is the question whether the defendant may be indicted for sexual abuse in the first degree (Penal Law, § 130.65) when he forcibly compels another to play with and manipulate his navel with her fingernails. A determination of this question can only be reached by resolving the subsidiary issue of whether the navel constitutes a “sexual or intimate” part of a person so as to fall within the ambit of “sexual contact”, a necessary element of sexual abuse in the first degree. (See Penal Law, §§ 130.65, 130.00, subd 3.)

On November 16, 1983…