Another stupid new law

Here is another new law:

California Governor Jerry Brown has signed legislation introduced by Assembly member Toni Atkins, (D-San Diego) that prevents victims from being forced to pay spousal support to ex-husbands or wives who are convicted of violent crime against them. Assembly Bill 1522 was inspired by the case of a San Diego-area woman, Crystal Harris, who was ordered to pay her former husband monthly spousal support during the pendency of his criminal trial. After he was convicted and sentenced to six years, Harris was ordered to pay a portion of his legal fees.

This may sound reasonable, but look at the case that justified this law:

A man accused of sexually assaulting his wife will not have to stand trial again, 10News reported.

Shawn Harris is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 5 after he was convicted last Friday of forcible oral copulation against his wife, Crystal. Jurors deadlocked on the two other charges, including forcible rape. ...

In court, she testified her husband had raped her and said the attack was the culmination of abuse that started months before. ...

For her own protection, she said she set up a tape recorder to record the threats. However, one of the recordings was the actual rape, Harris added. ...

While too graphic for 10News to broadcast in its entirety, jurors who listened to the 50-minute recording did not believe the defense's story that the sex was part of role-playing. But the jury did not completely buy into Crystal Harris' story as well.

"There were inconsistencies in their stories. Some things are just not plausible," said juror Lisa Yumi Mitchell. ...

"This is one of those crimes that I don't ever hear talked about in the media or in our culture," said Harris.

Nobody talks about it because no one believes that it is a crime. What kind of wife tape-records her husband having sex with her, and then claims that the tape is evidence of rape? Even tho she was free to say whatever would best frame her husband, the jury did not believe her story.

The wife was not exactly helpless. This is not the Crystal Harris who left Hugh Hefner at the altar last year. This Crystal Harris had the money:

Despite Shawn Harris' record of domestic violence and the fact that he was awaiting a separate trial for rape charges during their divorce proceedings, family court Judge Gregory Pollack ordered Crystal Harris to pay her husband $1,000 a month, in part because she was the family breadwinner, a financial advisor making about $120,000 a year, while her husband stayed home with the kids. Before the birth of their sons, Shawn Harris had worked as a used car salesman.

"The computer came up with a number of $3,000 a month that I should pay Shawn, but the judge did lower that down to $1,000 a month," Crystal Harris said.

The new law seems severe:

(1) An award of spousal support to the convicted spouse from the injured spouse is prohibited. ...

(4) The injured spouse shall be entitled to 100 percent of the community property interest in the retirement and pension benefits of the injured spouse.

So the wife makes a bogus rape accusation and the husband loses 100% of his pension?

Harris was not trapped in an abusive relationship. She could have left at any time. We have unilateral (no fault) divorce for that. She had an ongoing sexual relationship with her husband. If she changed her mind about how much she liked the rough sex, she could have gotten a divorce. It appears to me that this vindictive woman set up her husband so that she would not have to pay alimony.

San Francisco sheriff Mirkarimi faces a big vote on whether he gets fired for once grabbing his wife's arm. They would probably try to take his pension away also, if they could. Stay tuned for how liberal Democrats intervene in the private personal lives of others.