From the bill in question’s sponsor, Representative Kim Williams:
I found out today that Governor Markell is vetoing a bill that I sponsored, House Bill 130, Unlawful Sexual Contact. It passed the House and Senate unanimously. The Criminal Justice Council voted in support of this bill and whose members are Delaware judges, AG Denn, and other respected folks. I never heard a word from the Governor’s office until the day he decides to veto the bill that his office had an issue with it. I filed this bill early May. The only group that I heard a peep from was the Medical Society and that was after it was released from the House Judiciary Committee. I spoke to them briefly and never heard another word from them. Currently, if a healthcare worker (person of trust) has sex with a patient it is a misdemeanor, this bill would make it a felony. If a prison guard has consensual sex with an imate it is a felony but a healthcare worker who is treating a patient who has been sexually abused and the healthcare worker gains the individual’s trust and has sexual relations it is not a felony. This is unbelievable to me.
I look forward to Governor Markell’s explanation, and I do not envy his spin doctors. For the General Assembly, override.
[UPDATE]: The Governor’s explanation, which does read as reasonable. This instance points to a problem in the lack of communication between his office, himself, and Representative Kim Williams. Mike Matthews said on Facebook the following:
[A]ccording to one high-ranking source, the veto of Kim Casey Williams’s HB 130 is a lot lot lot deeper than it may appear. And it’s looking like our governor had no reason to veto it outside of a cabal of well-paid special interests and perhaps just some general pettiness on his part.
Well, the memo below provides a rational reason, but there is obviously an animus and a lack of communication between Markell and Williams. Hence, the pettiness. It is on the Governor for not communicating his problems with the bill.
