3.23Kidnapping a Child Under Age 14—Child Enticement
“(1) A person shall not maliciously, forcibly, or fraudulently lead, take, carry away, decoy, or entice away, any child under the age of 14 years, with the intent to detain or conceal the child from the child’s parent or legal guardian, or from the person or persons who have adopted the child, or from any other person having the lawful charge of the child. A person who violates this section is guilty of a felony . . . .
(2) An adoptive or natural parent of the child shall not be charged with and convicted for a violation of this section.”1 MCL 750.350.
Child enticement is a specific-intent crime. People v Kuchar, 225 Mich App 74, 77 (1997).
A conviction of child enticement is punishable by imprisonment for life or any term of years. MCL 750.350. No fine is authorized. See id.
The court must order a defendant convicted of child enticement to pay a crime victim assessment of $130. See MCL 780.905(1)(a).
3.Minimum State Cost and Other Costs
If the court orders payment of any combination of a fine, costs, or applicable assessments, the court must impose the minimum state cost of not less than $68. See MCL 769.1j(1)(a); MCL 769.1k(1)(a).
MCL 750.350 is a tier III offense under the Sex Offenders Registration Act (SORA). MCL 28.722(v)(iii). If the defendant meets the domicile, residence, employment, or student status, registration is required. See MCL 28.723.
For more information on the SORA’s registration requirements, see Chapter 9.
Although adoptive and natural parents are exempt from prosecution for kidnapping under MCL 750.350(1)-(2), an individual whose parental rights were previously terminated does not constitute a natural parent, and thus, is not exempt from prosecution under the statute. People v Wambar, 300 Mich App 121, 126, 129 (2013) (once the defendant-father’s parental rights were terminated, he was not a natural parent under MCL 750.350(2), and thus, was properly convicted of kidnapping his biological child under MCL 750.350(1)).2
1 The parental kidnapping statute, MCL 750.350a, applies to the conduct of adoptive and natural parents.
2 In Wambar, 300 Mich App at 126-127, the Court of Appeals acknowledged that “the Legislature could have added an explicit provision to MCL 750.350(2) explaining that the phrase ‘natural parent’ does not encompass a person whose parental rights have been terminated, we nonetheless conclude, in light of the special legal definition of ‘parent[,]’ [which “indicates that a person may cease to be a parent for certain purposes under the law if that person’s status as a parent has been terminated in a legal proceeding”] and in light of the general import of a termination of parental rights, that the exemption in MCL 750.350(2) should be read to exclude a person [whose parental rights were previously terminated].”