## Facts

- A resident left her apartment locked for several days and returned to find the apartment entered, vandalized (bleach poured, furniture slashed, food strewn), and small items missing.
- A note left on the bed stated: “Thank you for the use of your bed. Meagan and Oscar.”
- A neighbor recognized the handwriting as Meagan’s and confronted her at school.
- Meagan (age 14) admitted she poured bleach in the apartment and that she and Oscar (an adult male) had sexual intercourse in the resident’s bed.
- The prosecution’s burglary theory was that Meagan entered the apartment intending to commit a felony by aiding and abetting Oscar’s unlawful sexual intercourse with her (statutory rape under Penal Code § 261.5).

## Issues

1. Whether a minor who is the protected victim under Penal Code § 261.5 can, as a matter of law, be liable for aiding and abetting the adult’s unlawful sexual intercourse with her.
2. Whether a burglary true finding may rest on an entry made with the intent to “aid and abet” that statutory-rape offense against the minor herself.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeal reversed the juvenile court’s burglary true finding.
- The court held Meagan could not be liable for aiding and abetting her own statutory rape because § 261.5 is designed to protect minors, not punish them for participating in the prohibited intercourse.
- Because she could not be an aider and abettor of that felony, she could not possess the felonious intent required for burglary based on that theory.
- The vandalism finding (and the judgment in all other respects) was affirmed.

## Legal Principles

- When a criminal statute is structured to protect a defined class of persons and does not criminalize that class’s participation in the proscribed conduct, a member of the protected class generally cannot be prosecuted as an accomplice (aider/abettor or conspirator) to that offense.
- Penal Code § 261.5 treats the minor participant as the protected victim; the adult participant is the target of criminal liability.
- Burglary (Penal Code § 459) requires entry with intent to commit larceny or any felony; if the intended felony is legally unavailable due to protected-victim status, that intent cannot supply the burglary element.

## Conclusion

The court reversed the burglary finding because a 14-year-old minor, as the protected victim of statutory rape, cannot aid and abet the offense against herself, and thus cannot have burglary liability predicated on entering with intent to facilitate that felony; the vandalism finding remained in effect.


In re Meagan R., 42 Cal. App. 4th 17 (Cal. Ct. App. 1996)