Senate Bill No. 437
(By Senators Wiedebusch, Manchin, Ross, Dittmar,
Bailey and Buckalew)
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[Introduced February 19, 1996; 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 disorderly
conduct; criminal penalties; and increasing penalty for
first and repeat offenses.
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 or her lawful capacity, is guilty of disorderly conduct, a
misdemeanor. and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not
more than one hundred dollars. Any person who is convicted of a
violation of this section who has no prior conviction for such a
violation shall be confined in the county or regional jail for
not more than ten days or fined not less than fifty dollars nor
more than one hundred dollars or both confined and fined.
Any person convicted of a violation of this section who has
been previously convicted of a violation hereof shall be confined
in the county or regional jail for not less than forty-eight
hours nor more than ten days or fined not less than one hundred
dollars nor more than two hundred dollars, or both confined and
fined.
(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 allow incarceration
for disorderly conduct with an enhancement for second and
subsequent offenses.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.