Senate Bill No. 554
(By Senator Schoonover)
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[Introduced February 17, 1999;
referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section one-b, article six, chapter
sixty-one of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to increasing the
penalty for disorderly conduct.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section one-b, article six, 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 6. CRIMES AGAINST THE PEACE.
§61-6-1b. Disorderly conduct; penalty.
(a) Any person who, in a public place, a mobile home park,
a public parking area, a common area of an apartment building or
dormitory, or a common area of a privately-owned commercial
shopping center, mall or other group of commercial retail
establishments, disturbs the peace of others by violent, profane, indecent or boisterous conduct or language or by the making of
unreasonably loud noise that is intended to cause annoyance or
alarm to another person, and who persists in such conduct after
being requested to desist by a law-enforcement officer acting in
his lawful capacity, is guilty of disorderly conduct, a
misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more
than one three hundred dollars or imprisoned in the county jail
for a period not to exceed five days, or both such fine and
imprisonment.
(b) For purposes of this section:
(1) "Mobile home park" means a privately-owned residential
housing area or subdivision wherein the dwelling units are
comprised mainly of mobile homes and wherein the occupants of
such dwelling units share common elements for purposes of ingress
and egress, parking, recreation and other like residential
purposes.
(2) "Mobile home" means a moveable or portable unit,
designed and constructed to be towed on its own chassis
(comprised of frame and wheels), and designed to be connected to
utilities for year-round occupancy. The term includes: (A)
Units containing parts that may be folded, collapsed or
telescoped when being towed and that may be expanded to provide
additional cubic capacity; and (B) units composed of two or more
separately towable components designed to be joined into one integral unit capable of being separated again into the
components for repeated towing.
(3) "Public parking area" means an area, whether publicly or
privately owned or maintained, open to the use of the public for
parking motor vehicles.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to increase the penalty
for disorderly conduct from a fine of $100 to a fine of $300
and/or up to 5 days in jail.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates language that
would be added.