The Mississippi Legislature will adjourn without adding &#8220police officer” to the list of specific jobs answerable in a sexual battery statute.

Senate Bill 2315, written by Sen. Mike Chaney, R-Vicksburg, died in a judiciary committee without discussion or a vote.

The request to amend the law came in the wake of charges last year against two Vicksburg police officers, Anthony Lane and Bobby Jones, based on consensual sexual relations with a 17-year-old high school student.

Lane, who had been assigned as a resource officer to Vicksburg High where the student was enrolled, was tried and acquitted. The indictment naming Jones, who was not assigned to the school, was then dropped without trial.

Rep. George Flaggs, D-Vicksburg, said legislators wouldn’t consider the measure for two reasons: lack of support from the law enforcement community and lawmakers’ interpretation of the bill.

&#8220I have not heard from anybody other than Chief (Tommy) Moffett and … the City of Vicksburg,” Flaggs said. &#8220And the Legislature is under the opinion (police officers) are already included. Keep in mind we are not talking about legal minds but dealing with a body of personalities.”

While 16 is Mississippi’s age of legal consent, provisions in the sexual battery statute raise it to 18 when an adult is &#8220in a position of trust or authority” over the teen. The statute lists 15 such roles: teacher, counselor, physician, psychiatrist, minister, priest, physical therapist, chiropractor, legal guardian, parent, stepparent, aunt, uncle, scout leader and coach.

The law also expressly says the list is not to be considered all-inclusive, but initial public reports of the officers’ conduct resulted in questions about whether the law applied to them. An attorney general’s advisory opinion said it did, and both were indicted.

Testimony in Lane’s trial, then 29, revealed his relationship with the student happened around June 2004. She testified she initiated the relationship. Additionally, Moffett testified that though he had suspended Lane for 20 days, he did not believe state law defines people serving under him as &#8220persons of trust or authority.”

Moffett said he believed the conduct was wrong and supported revision of the law.

&#8220That would clear it up,” he said. &#8220I feel police should be added and that it should be changed. A lot of people are not on that list, like judges, legislators and district attorneys.”

Warren County District Attorney Gil Martin said Thursday that while he didn’t know a revision of the statute had been considered in committee, he also believes police officers should be included in the list of people the Legislature considers those in positions of &#8220trust or authority.”

&#8220I think it was a good plan,” he said. &#8220I think the whole statute needs to be revised because it needs more than just a tack-on. It’s all just situational.”

Clay Joyner, the president of the state’s prosecutors association, could not be reached. But Martin said the association was not &#8220aware” of Chaney’s bill.

&#8220I’m on the legislative committee,” he said. &#8220It has not been discussed at the prosecutors association. I didn’t even know about it. They can’t blame us because we weren’t even aware of it.”

Lane and Jones, who was 32 at the time, both faced Civil Service Commission actions after being fired by the city board. The city’s termination of Lane was upheld with the panel saying his &#8220conduct was unbecoming of a police officer, that by virtue of his indictment and resulting trial and testimony given in that trial, that (Lane) had lost the trust and respect of the public, and that he had violated his oath” of office. That case is on appeal.

Jones won a 3-0 ruling in September that a 15-month suspension without pay was appropriate. He had been on suspension since July 21, 2005, the day he and Lane were arraigned. Jones has since returned to the Vicksburg Police Department as a patrolman.