ENROLLED
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
H. B. 4098
(By Delegates Leach, Pino and Clements)
[Passed March 11, 1998; in effect ninety days from passage.]
AN ACT 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 fire marshal or
employee, 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, fire marshal
and county or state correctional employees;
penalties.
(a)
Malicious assault. -- 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, state fire marshal or employee, county
correctional employee or state correctional 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
service personnel, firefighter, state fire marshal or employee,
county correctional employee, or state correctional employee acting
in his or her official capacity, is guilty of a felony and, upon
conviction, shall be confined in a correctional facility for not
less than three nor more than fifteen years.
(b)
Unlawful assault. -- 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, state fire marshal or
employee, county correctional employee or state correctional
employee acting in his or her official capacity, bodily injury with
intent to maim, disfigure, disable or kill said 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, state
fire marshal or employee, county correctional employee or state
correctional employee acting in his or her official capacity, is
guilty of a felony and, upon conviction, shall be confined in a
correctional facility for not less than two years nor more than
five years.
(c)
Battery. -- 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, state fire
marshal or employee, county correctional employee or state
correctional 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, state fire marshal or employee,
county correctional employee, or state correctional employee acting
in such capacity, is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction
thereof, shall be confined in the county or regional jail for not
less than one month nor more than twelve months, fined the sum of
five hundred dollars, or both. If any person commits a second such
offense, he or she is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction
thereof, shall be confined in 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 confined. Any person who commits a third violation of this subsection is guilty of a felony
and, upon conviction, shall be confined in 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 confined.
(d)
Assault. -- 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, state fire marshal or employee, county correctional
employee, or state correctional employee unlawfully commits an act
which places a police officer, conservation officer, humane
officer, emergency medical service personnel, firefighter, county
correctional employee, or state correctional employee acting in his
or her official capacity in reasonable apprehension of immediately
receiving a violent injury,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,fined not
more than two hundred dollars, or both.
(e) For purposes of this section, "police officer" means any
person employed by the state police,any person employed by the
state to perform law-enforcement duties, any person employed by 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.
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