Senate Bill No. 398
(By Senator Dalton)
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[Introduced March 18, 1993;; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section seventeen, article five,
chapter sixty-one of the code of West Virginia, one thousand
nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to crimes
against public justice; prohibiting the interception or
interference with, or giving misleading or false information
to law-enforcement officers; and providing criminal
penalties.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section seventeen, article five, 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 5. CRIMES AGAINST PUBLIC JUSTICE.
§61-5-17. Obstructing officer; penalty.
(a) Any person who by threats, menaces, acts or otherwise,
shall forcibly or illegally hinder, obstruct, or oppose hinders,
obstructs, or opposes, or attempt attempts to hinder, obstruct or
oppose, or shall counsel, advise or invite counsels, advises, orinvites others to hinder, obstruct or oppose any officer in this
state (whether civil or military) in the lawful exercise or
discharge of his or her official duty, shall is, for every such
offense, be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction
thereof, shall be fined not less than fifty nor more than five
hundred dollars, and may, in the discretion of the court, be
imprisoned not exceeding one year.
(b) Any person who at any time physically intercepts, or
interferes with, or who knowingly gives false or misleading
information to any state, county, municipal law-enforcement
officer or any officer of the department of natural resources,
while the officers are on duty, on a matter relating to any crime
or potential crime other than a traffic violation is guilty of a
misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not
less than twenty-five dollars nor more than two hundred dollars,
or imprisoned in the county jail for not more than sixty days, or
both fined and imprisoned.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to make it a criminal
offense when persons give false information to any law-
enforcement officer.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.