COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 72
(By Senators Buckalew and Love)
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[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;
reported March 28, 1997.]
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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 assaults on
police officers, conservation officers, county and state
police officers and municipal and county humane officers;
and providing criminal 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, county or state correctional
officers, or humane officers; penalties.
(a) Malicious assault. -- If any person maliciously shoots,
stabs, cuts or wounds or by any means causes bodily injury with
intent to maim, disfigure, disable or kill a police officer,
county correctional officer, or state correctional officer or
municipal or county humane officer 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, county correctional officer, or state
correctional officer or municipal or county humane officer acting
in his or her official capacity, then the offender shall be
guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be
punished by confinement in the penitentiary not less than three
nor more than fifteen years.
(b) Unlawful assault. -- If any person unlawfully but not
maliciously shoots, stabs, cuts or wounds or by any means causes
a police officer, conservation officer, county correctional
officer, state correctional officer or municipal or county humane
officer acting in his or her official capacity or state
correctional officer bodily injury with intent to maim,
disfigure, disable or kill said officer and the person committing
the unlawful assault knows or has reason to know that the victim
is a police officer, conservation officer, county correctional
officer, or state correctional officer or municipal or county
humane officer acting in his or her official capacity, then the offender is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof,
shall be confined to the penitentiary for a period of not less
than two years nor more than five years.
(c) Battery. -- If any person unlawfully and intentionally
makes physical contact of an insulting or provoking nature with
a police officer, conservation officer, county correctional
officer, or state correctional officer or municipal or county
humane officer acting in his or her official capacity, or
unlawfully and intentionally causes physical harm to a police
officer, conservation officer, county correctional officer, or
state correctional officer or municipal or county humane officer
acting in such capacity, said person is guilty of a misdemeanor
and, upon conviction thereof, shall be confined to the county or
regional jail for a period of not less than forty-eight hours nor
more than twelve months or fined the sum of five hundred dollars
or both. If any person commits a second such offense, then such
person is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof,
shall be confined in the county or regional jail for a period of
not less than ten days nor more than twelve months. Any person
who commits a third violation of this section is guilty of a
felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be confined in the
penitentiary for a period of not less than one year nor more than
five years or fined not more than one thousand dollars or both.
(d) Assault. -- If any person unlawfully attempts to commit a violent injury to the person of a police officer, conservation
officer, county correctional officer or state correctional
officer, or unlawfully commits an act which places a police
officer, conservation officer, county correctional officer, or
state correctional officer or municipal or county humane officer
acting in his or her official capacity in reasonable apprehension
of immediately receiving a violent injury, he shall be guilty of
a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, 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 this section, a
police officer means any officer employed by the division of
public safety, any county law-enforcement agency or any police
officer employed by any city or municipality who is responsible
for the prevention or detection of crime and the enforcement of
the penal, traffic or highway laws of this state.
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(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to include humane
officers as persons for purposes of defining the violations of
malicious assault, unlawful assault, battery and assault on
certain law-enforcement officers.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.)