NC Supreme Court Clarifies Test for Determining When Acts Support Multiple Counts of Indecent Liberties

I wrote here about the North Carolina Court of Appeals decision in State v. Calderon, 290 N.C. App. 344 (2023), which set forth a new test for determining whether multiple acts of touching a child during a single encounter can support multiple counts of indecent liberties. Applying that test, a divided panel of the court of appeals determined that the trial court erred in denying the defendant’s motion to dismiss one of three charges against him for indecent liberties. The State appealed based on the dissent and both parties sought discretionary review as to additional issues. The North Carolina Supreme Court granted those petitions and, in an opinion filed December 12, 2025, reversed the court of appeals. State v. Calderon, ___ N.C. ___, 923 S.E.2d 530 (2025). The state supreme court held that (1) the court of appeals erred in applying (a) a threshold distinction between touching and sexual acts and (b) a four-factor test for multiple indecent liberties offenses instead of the distinct interruption test established in State v. Dew, 379 N.C. 64 (2021), and (2) the defendant was properly convicted of three counts of indecent liberties. This post will discuss the crime of indecent liberties and the North Carolina Supreme Court’s analysis in Calderon. The crime. The crime of taking indecent liberties with children is a Class F felony defined by G.S. 14-202.1. It occurs when a person who is at least 16 years old and who is at least five years older than the child in question does [...]