Senate Bill No. 434
(By Senators Sharpe, White, Yoder, Ross and Scott)
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[Introduced February 19, 1996; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend article eight-d, chapter sixty-one of the code
of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section
ten, relating to crimes and their punishment; child abuse;
making it a crime to make false accusations of child abuse;
and providing criminal penalty.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article eight-d, chapter sixty-one of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be
amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section ten,
to read as follows:
ARTICLE 8D. CHILD ABUSE.
§61-8D-10. Malicious accusation of child neglect or abuse; criminal penalties; civil action; treble damages,
costs and attorney fees.
(a) Notwithstanding any provision of article six or six-a,
chapter forty-nine of this code or any other provision of law to
the contrary, any person who maliciously, fraudulently,
illegally, recklessly or for the purpose of harassing a parent,
guardian or custodian of a child, or through any other act of bad
faith, reports that a parent, guardian or custodian has
neglected or abused a child, as those terms are defined in
section one, article eight-b of this chapter, is guilty of a
misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not
less than one hundred nor more than one thousand dollars or
imprisoned in the county or regional jail for not less than six
months not more than one year, or both fined and imprisoned.
(b) In addition to the criminal penalty set out in
subsection (a) of this section, any person who maliciously,
fraudulently, illegally, recklessly or for the purpose of
harassing a parent, guardian or custodian of a child, or through
any other act of bad faith, reports that a parent, guardian or
custodian has neglected or abused a child, as those terms are
defined in section one, article eight-b of this chapter may be liable to the parent, guardian or custodian in a claim brought
for damages as the result of any malicious, reckless, illegal,
fraudulent or unconscionable conduct. The court may award all of
the costs of litigation, including reasonable attorney fees,
court costs and fees to the parent, guardian or custodian. And,
on a finding by the court that the action or conduct of the
defendant was made in bad faith or for the purposes of harassment
of the parent, guardian or custodian, the court may award to the
plaintiff treble damages.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to make it a misdemeanor
offense to, in bad faith or for harassment purposes, accuse a
parent, guardian or custodian of a child of child abuse. It also
provides for a civil action with treble damages, costs and
attorney fees.
§61-8D-10 is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.
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