COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 219
(By Senators Love, Hunter, Helmick, Buckalew, Ball,
Kessler, McKenzie, Ross, Sharpe, Fanning and Schoonover)
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[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;
reported February 13, 1998.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section ten-b, article two, chapter
sixty-one of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to crimes against
the person; assaults and batteries on enumerated persons;
extending protections of section to humane officers,
emergency medical personnel, firefighters, state and county
correctional employees and special police; and penalties.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section ten-b, article two, chapter sixty-one of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2. CRIMES AGAINST THE PERSON.
§61-2-10b. Malicious assault; unlawful assault; battery and
recidivism of battery; assault on police officers,
conservation officers, humane officers, emergency medical service personnel, firefighters, and county or state
correctional officers or employees; penalties.
(a)
Malicious assault. --
If any Any person
who maliciously
shoots, stabs, cuts or wounds or by any means causes bodily
injury with intent to maim, disfigure, disable or kill a police
officer,
conservation officer, humane officer, emergency medical
service personnel, firefighter, county correctional
officer
employee or state correctional
officer employee acting in his or
her official capacity and the person committing the malicious
assault knows or has reason to know that the victim is a police
officer, conservation officer, humane officer, emergency medical
technician, firefighter, county correctional
officer employee, or
state correctional
officer employee acting in his or her official
capacity,
then the offender shall be is guilty of a felony and,
upon conviction, shall be
punished by confinement in the
penitentiary confined in a correctional facility for not less
than three nor more than fifteen years.
(b)
Unlawful assault. --
If any Any person
who unlawfully but
not maliciously shoots, stabs, cuts or wounds or by any means
causes a police officer, conservation officer,
humane officer,
emergency medical service personnel, firefighter, county
correctional
officer employee acting in his or her official
capacity or state correctional
officer employee acting in his or
her official capacity, bodily injury with intent to maim,
disfigure, disable or kill said
officer person and the person committing the unlawful assault knows or has reason to know that
the victim is a police officer, conservation officer,
humane
officer, emergency medical service personnel, firefighter, county
correctional
officer employee or state correctional
officer
employee acting in his or her official capacity,
then the
offender is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, shall be
confined
to the penitentiary for a period of in a correctional
facility for not less than two years nor more than five years.
(c)
Battery. --
If any Any person
who unlawfully
, knowingly
and intentionally makes physical contact of an insulting or
provoking nature with a police officer, conservation officer,
humane officer, emergency medical service personnel, firefighter,
county correctional
officer employee or state correctional
officer employee acting in his or her official capacity, or
unlawfully and intentionally causes physical harm to a police
officer, conservation officer,
humane officer, emergency medical
service personnel, firefighter, county correctional
officer
employee, or state correctional
officer employee acting in such
capacity,
said person is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon
conviction thereof, shall be confined
to in the county or
regional jail
for not less than one month nor more than twelve
months,
or fined the sum of five hundred dollars, or both
fined
and imprisoned. If any person commits a second such offense,
then such person he or she is guilty of a felony and, upon
conviction thereof, shall be confined in
the state a correctional facility
for not less than one year nor more than three years or
fined the sum of one thousand dollars or both fined and
imprisoned confined. Any person who commits a third violation of
this subsection is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, shall
be confined in
the state a correctional facility not less than
two years nor more than five years or fined not more than two
thousand dollars or both fined and
imprisoned confined.
(d)
Assault. --
If any Any person
who unlawfully attempts to
commit a violent injury to the person of a police officer,
conservation officer,
humane officer, emergency medical service
personnel, firefighter, county correctional
officer employee, or
state correctional
officer employee or unlawfully commits an act
which places a police officer, conservation officer,
humane
officer, emergency medical service personnel, firefighter, county
correctional
officer employee, or state correctional
officer
employee acting in his or her official capacity in reasonable
apprehension of immediately receiving a violent injury,
he shall
be is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be
confined in the county or regional jail for not less than
twenty-four hours nor more than six months,
or fined not more
than two hundred dollars, or both.
such fine and imprisonment.
(e)
Police officer defined. -- As used in For purposes of this
section,
a "police officer" means any
officer person employed by
the
division of public safety state police, any county law-
enforcement agency, any
officer person employed by the state to perform law-enforcement duties,
or any
police officer person
employed by
any city or municipality a political subdivision of
this state who is responsible for the prevention or detection of
crime and the enforcement of the penal, traffic or highway laws
of this state
or employed as a special police officer as such is
defined in section forty-one, article three, chapter sixty-one of
this code.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to extend the protections
against assault provided by this section to state and county
correctional employees, humane officers, emergency medical
service personnel, firefighters and special police, in addition
to state and county correctional officers.