Senate Bill No. 154

(By Senators Wiedebusch, Love, Kimble, Schoonover,

Miller, Oliverio and Manchin)

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[Introduced January 26, 1996; referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact sections ten-c and ten-d, article two-a, chapter forty-eight of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, all relating to criminal penalties for violating a family violence protective order; and arrest for certain violations of family violence protective orders.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That sections ten-c and ten-d, article two-a, chapter forty-eight of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2A. PREVENTION OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE.
§48-2A-10c. Arrest for violations of protective orders.
(a) When a law-enforcement officer observes any respondent abuse, the petitioner and/or minor children or the respondent's physical presence at any location in knowing and willful violation of the terms of a temporary or final protection order issued under the provisions of this article, he or she shall immediately arrest the respondent.
(b) When a family or household member is alleged to have committed a violation of the provisions of section ten-d of this article, a law-enforcement officer shall arrest the perpetrator for said offense where:
(1) The law-enforcement officer has observed credible corroborative evidence, as defined in subsection (b), section fourteen of this article, that the offense has occurred; and
(2) The law-enforcement officer has received, from the victim or a witness, a verbal or written allegation of the facts constituting a violation of section ten-d of this article; or
(3) The law-enforcement officer has observed credible evidence that the accused committed the offense.
(b) (c) Any person who observes a violation of a protective order as described in this section, or the victim of such abuse or unlawful presence, may call a local law-enforcement agency, which shall verify the existence of a current order, and shall direct a law-enforcement officer to promptly investigate the alleged violation.
(c) (d) Where there is an arrest, the officer shall take the arrested person before a court or a magistrate and, upon a finding of probable cause to believe a violation of an order as set forth in this section has occurred, the court or magistrate shall set a time and place for a hearing in accordance with the West Virginia rules of criminal procedure.
§48-2A-10d. Misdemeanor offense of violation of protective order.
(a) A respondent who abuses the petitioner and/or minor children or who is physically present at any location in knowing and willful violation of the terms of a temporary or final protective order issued under the provisions of this article shall be is guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be confined in the county or regional jail for a period of not less than one day seven days nor more than one year, which jail term shall include actual confinement of not less than twenty-four hours, and shall be fined not less than two hundred fifty dollars or more than two thousand dollars.
(b) When a respondent previously convicted of the offense described in subsection (a) of this section abuses the petitioner and/or minor children or is physically present at any location in knowing and willful violation of the terms of a temporary or final protective order issued under the provisions of this article, the respondent is guilty of a felony, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be imprisoned in the penitentiary for not less than one year nor more than five years.


NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to make it easier to arrest a person who violates a protective order. It also makes a second offense of violating a protective order a felony.

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