Senate Bill No. 350

(By Senators Wooton and Claypole)

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[Introduced February 15, 1994; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]

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A BILL to amend and reenact section sixteen, article eight, chapter sixty-one of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to crimes and their punishment; including repeated telephone solicitation calls as harassing calls; and providing criminal penalty.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section sixteen, article eight, 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 8. CRIMES AGAINST CHASTITY, MORALITY AND DECENCY.

§61-8-16. Obscene, anonymous, harassing, repeated and threatening telephone calls; penalty.

(a) It shall be is unlawful for any person with intent to harass or abuse another by means of telephone to:
(1) Make any comment, request, suggestion or proposal which is obscene; or
(2) Make a telephone call, whether or not conversationensues, without disclosing his identity and with intent to harass any person at the called number; or
(3) Make or cause the telephone of another repeatedly or continuously to ring, with intent to harass any person at the called number; or
(4) Make repeated telephone calls, during which conversation ensues, with intent to harass any person at the called number; or
(5) Threaten to commit a crime against any person or property; or
(6) Make a telephone call for the purpose of soliciting money for charitable purposes, soliciting monetary contributions for any purpose or attempting to sell any product or service, if the person at the called number tells the caller that he does not wish to have such calls and asks the caller not to call again.
(b) It shall be is unlawful for any person to knowingly permit any telephone under his control to be used for any purpose prohibited by this section.
(c) Any offense committed under this section may be deemed to have occurred at the place at which the telephone call was made, or the place at which the telephone call was received.
(d) Any person who violates any provision of this section shall be is guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than five hundred dollars, or imprisoned in the county jail not more than six months, or both fined and imprisoned: Provided, That any person who violates the provisions of subdivision (6), subsection(a) after being informednot to call shall be fined two hundred fifty dollars for the first such offense and each subsequent offense, up to three offenses. After three offenses that person shall be subject to a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, and the jail sentence hereby imposed, upon conviction thereof. This shall be in addition to any civil remedies available under any existing state or federal law.



NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to make it a criminal offense to make telephone solicitations, after being told that the person receiving the call does not want such telephone calls.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.