Bill tightening definition of sexual assault by a health care worker clears first committee

HB 242 by Rep. Sara Hannan, D-Juneau, closes ‘loophole’ in current law stating victim must be unaware they’re being assaulted by a person providing treatment for charges to be valid

The Dimond Courthouse on Friday, Sept. 19, 2025. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Independent)

By Mark Sabbatini

Juneau Independent

An effort to close what a Juneau lawmaker calls "a serious loophole" in the state’s sexual assault laws, prompted by an acquittal of charges involving a former local chiropractor, advanced out of its first legislative committee of referral on Tuesday.

Current state law requires a victim to be unaware they’re being sexually assaulted by a health care worker during treatment for a criminal charge to apply. House Bill 242 simplifies the law so "any sexual penetration or contact by a health care worker during professional treatment constitutes first- or second-degree sexual assault," according to a fiscal note summary.

Rep. Sara Hannan, D-Juneau, told the House Health and Social Services Committee — which held three hearings on the bill during the past two weeks — she introduced the legislation due to a local trial that ended last September with some charges dismissed because of the law’s current wording.

"It's a very narrow-in-scope bill looking at our sexual assault statutes only dealing with health care workers committing that assault while they are giving treatment," she told the committee.

The case that prompted HB 242 involved former Juneau chiropractor Jeffrey Fultz, who was accused by about a dozen female patients of sexual assault while providing treatment to them between 2014 to 2020. He originally faced 16 charges related to the allegations, but a judge declared a mistrial on two of them during the trial, and a jury acquitted him on two additional charges while deadlocking on the 12 remaining charges.

Prosecutors said they intended to retry Fultz on the 14 unresolved charges, but Judge Larry Woolford dismissed one of the charges and declared the alleged victim’s testimony didn’t meet the legal definition of the sexual assault charge. A readiness hearing for Fultz on the remaining charges is scheduled April 15 at the Dimond Courthouse in Juneau.

The first committee hearing on HB 242, on March 10, featured testimony by S’eiltin Jamiann Hasselquist, who was associated with the charges Fultz was acquitted on during his first trial. In arguing for the bill’s passage, she said "patients should be able to seek care for healing without fear that their trust will be used against them."

"The current law creates a gap that allows perpetrators to use their professional power," she said. "Awareness does not mean consent. Awareness doesn't mean a patient feels safe enough to stop what is happening, or challenging a medical provider. That gap allowed the person who harmed me to avoid accountability."

Questions raised by legislators during a second committee meeting March 15 included the impact the bill would have on current cases. Angie Kemp, director of the Alaska Department of Law's Criminal Division, said it only will apply to cases filed after the law takes effect.

Support for the bill was also expressed during that hearing by Lauree Morton, deputy director of the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, and Christina Love, a Juneau resident appointed by former President Joe Biden to the U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking.

Committee members on Tuesday passed the bill on to the House Judiciary Committee, which is scheduled to hear it Friday at 1 p.m.

• Contact Mark Sabbatini at editor@juneauindependent.com or (907) 957-2306.