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IN THE SUPREME COURT OF IOWA
No. 75 / 05-1197 Filed July 21, 2006 STATE OF IOWA, Appellant, vs. GASPAR FIDEL GONZALEZ, JR., Appellee.

Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Johnson County, Stephen C. Gerard II, Judge.

The State appeals from the district court's granting of the defendant's motion to dismiss the trial information. REMANDED. REVERSED AND CASE

Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, Martha E. Boesen, Assistant Attorney General, J. Patrick White, County Attorney, and Anne M. Lahey, Assistant County Attorney, for appellant.

David E. Brown of Hayek, Hayek, Brown, Moreland & Hayek, L.L.P., Iowa City, for appellee.

2 WIGGINS, Justice. In this appeal, we must determine whether the district court correctly granted the defendant's motion to dismiss the trial information charging the defendant with sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist. In its ruling, the district court found the defendant's conduct while working as a psychiatric nursing assistant did not fall within the scope of Iowa Code section 709.15 (Supp. 2003). Because we find the facts alleged by the State in the trial information and attached minutes charge that the defendant was a counselor or therapist for purposes of section 709.15 and the defendant's constitutional claims fail, we reverse the district court's granting of the motion to dismiss and remand the case for further proceedings. I. Background Facts and Proceedings. The State charged Gaspar Fidel Gonzalez, Jr. with sexual exploitation by a counselor or therapist in violation of Iowa Code sections 709.15(1)(a), (b), (f)(3) and 709.15(4).1 The charge was filed in connection with Gonzalez's alleged touching of a female patient's genital area in his role as a nursing assistant in the psychiatric unit of the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Gonzalez entered a plea of not guilty. According to the minutes of testimony, a psychiatric nursing assistant, "[w]ith supervision from a Registered Nurse, performs specific nursing tasks to assist members of the nursing team in providing care and monitoring of psychiatric patients." The characteristic duties and

responsibilities of a psychiatric nursing assistant include establishing therapeutic relationships, participating in planning patient care appropriate
These citations are set forth in the trial information and appear to refer to the 2003 Code of Iowa. However, Iowa Code section 709.15 was amended in 2003. See 2003 Iowa Acts ch. 180,

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