ENROLLED
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
H. B. 2865
(By Mr. Speaker, Mr. Kiss, and Delegates Browning, Staton,
Beane, H. White, Stalnaker and G. White)
[Passed March 8, 2003; in effect ninety days from passage.]
AN ACT to amend and reenact section twenty-nine, article three,
chapter sixty-one of the code of West Virginia, one thousand
nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to crimes
against property; and increasing penalties for damaging or
destroying real or personal property owned by a railroad
company or public utility or any real or personal property
used for producing, generating, transmitting, distributing,
treating or collecting electricity, natural gas, water,
wastewater, stormwater, telecommunications or cable service.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section twenty-nine, article three, 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 3. CRIMES AGAINST PROPERTY.
§61-3-29. Damage or destruction of railroad or public utility
company property, or real or personal property used for
producing, generating, transmitting, distributing, treating or collecting electricity, natural gas, water, wastewater,
stormwater, telecommunications or cable service; penalties;
restitution.
(a) Any person who knowingly and willfully damages or destroys
any real or personal property owned by a railroad company or public
utility company, or any real or personal property used for
producing, generating, transmitting, distributing, treating or
collecting electricity, natural gas, water, wastewater, stormwater,
telecommunications or cable service, is guilty of a misdemeanor
and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than two
thousand dollars, or confined in the county or regional jail not
more than one year, or both.
(b) Any person who knowingly and willfully damages or destroys
any real or personal property owned by a railroad company or public
utility company, or any real or personal property used for
producing, generating, transmitting, distributing, treating or
collecting electricity, natural gas, water, wastewater, stormwater,
telecommunications or cable service causing serious bodily injury
to another is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof,
shall be fined not less than five thousand dollars nor more than
fifty thousand dollars, or confined in a state correctional
facility not less than one nor more than five years, or both.
(c) Nothing in this section may be construed to limit or
restrict the ability of an entity referred to in subsection (a) or
(b) of this section or a property owner or other person who has been damaged or injured as a result of a violation of this section
from seeking recovery for damages arising from violation of this
section.
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