Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Re: Date rape v. Statutory rape

I think you should ask experts in journalistic ethics instead of lawyers. As you say, "date rape" is not a legal term. This means lawyers have no precise definition to offer you. Since the First Amendment protects your right to say what you want, your question isn't so much about what the law says as what choice a reporter should make. Editors and reporters will probably be more helpful with such a question than would lawyers.

Having said that, I will offer a brief legal analysis which you may find helpful.

"Date rape" usually means non-consensual sex between a man and a woman who are either on a date or in a relationship at the time. By the young woman's account this was a date rape. By the man's account it wasn't.

"Statutory rape", of course, is a legal term even though it technically is no longer proper in California. It refers to essentially any sexual intercourse between an adult and a minor regardless of whether the minor "consents", since the law won't let minors consent to sex. (This is why there is such a thing as the "age of consent" -- the point at which the state will recognize a person's ability to have voluntary sex.)

A single incident can be both date rape and statutory rape. If the young woman is telling the truth, then that is what happened here.

Journalists generally refer to a crime as an "alleged [offense name]" unless and until the charges are proven. The law does not restrict what you can say, but I think it would have been irresponsible to suggest that the incident was a date rape at this point. Saying so implies that you believe the victim and not the defendant, which amounts to choosing sides. Most journalists work hard to avoid doing that. At the same time, you could properly refer to "date-rape allegations", "date-rape charges", a "date-rape prosecution", etc.