COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
H. B. 2734
(By Delegates Amores, L. White, Capito,
Johnson and Hunt)
(Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary)
[March 1, 1999]
A BILL to amend and reenact section ten-b, article two, chapter
sixty-one of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to criminal
assault, battery and recidivistic battery; assault on
employees of urban mass transportation systems or a common
carrier regulated by the public service commission; and
penalties therefor.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section ten-b, article two, 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 2.CRIMES AGAINST THE PERSON.
§61-2-10b. Malicious assault; unlawful assault; battery and
recidivism of battery; assault on police officers, conservation officers, humane officers, emergency medical service personnel, firefighters, fire marshal and county or state correctional employees; penalties.
(a) Malicious assault. -- Any person who maliciously shoots,
stabs, cuts or wounds or by any means causes bodily injury with
intent to maim, disfigure, disable or kill a police officer,
conservation officer, humane officer, emergency medical service
personnel, firefighter, state fire marshal or employee, county
correctional employee, or state correctional employee, employee
of an urban mass transportation system or a common carrier
regulated by the public service commission acting in his or her
official capacity and the person committing the malicious assault
knows or has reason to know that the victim is a police officer,
conservation officer, humane officer, emergency medical service
personnel, firefighter, state fire marshal or employee, county
correctional employee, or state correctional employee, employee
of an urban mass transportation system or a common carrier
regulated by the public service commission acting in his or her
official capacity, is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction,
shall be confined in a correctional facility for not less than
three nor more than fifteen years.
(b) Unlawful assault. -- Any person who unlawfully but not maliciously shoots, stabs, cuts or wounds or by any means causes
a police officer, conservation officer, humane officer, emergency
medical service personnel, firefighter, state fire marshal or
employee, county correctional employee, or state correctional
employee, employee of an urban mass transportation system or a
common carrier regulated by the public service commission acting
in his or her official capacity, bodily injury with intent to
maim, disfigure, disable or kill said person and the person
committing the unlawful assault knows or has reason to know that
the victim is a police officer, conservation officer, humane
officer, emergency medical service personnel, firefighter, state
fire marshal or employee, county correctional employee, or state
correctional employee, employee of an urban mass transportation
system or a common carrier regulated by the public service
commission acting in his or her official capacity, is guilty of
a felony and, upon conviction, shall be confined in a
correctional facility for not less than two years nor more than
five years.
(c) Battery. -- Any person who unlawfully, knowingly and
intentionally makes physical contact of an insulting or provoking
nature with a police officer, conservation officer, humane
officer, emergency medical service personnel, firefighter, state
fire marshal or employee, county correctional employee, or state
correctional employee, employee of an urban mass transportation system or a common carrier regulated by the public service
commission acting in his or her official capacity, or unlawfully
and intentionally causes physical harm to a police officer,
conservation officer, humane officer, emergency medical service
personnel, firefighter, state fire marshal or employee, county
correctional employee, or state correctional employee, employee
of an urban mass transportation system or a common carrier
regulated by the public service commission acting in such
capacity, is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction
thereof, shall be confined in the county or regional jail for not
less than one month nor more than twelve months, fined the sum of
five hundred dollars, or both. If any person commits a second
such offense, he or she is guilty of a felony and, upon
conviction thereof, shall be confined in a correctional facility
for not less than one year nor more than three years or fined the
sum of one thousand dollars or both fined and confined. Any
person who commits a third violation of this subsection is guilty
of a felony and, upon conviction, shall be confined in a
correctional facility not less than two years nor more than five
years or fined not more than two thousand dollars or both fined
and confined.
(d) Assault. -- Any person who unlawfully attempts to commit
a violent injury to the person of a police officer, conservation
officer, humane officer, emergency medical service personnel, firefighter, state fire marshal or employee, county correctional
employee, or state correctional employee, employee of an urban
mass transportation system or a common carrier regulated by the
public service commission acting in his or her official capacity,
or unlawfully commits an act which places a police officer,
conservation officer, humane officer, emergency medical service
personnel, firefighter, county correctional employee, or state
correctional employee, employee of an urban mass transportation
system or a common carrier regulated by the public service
commission acting in his or her official capacity in reasonable
apprehension of immediately receiving a violent injury, is guilty
of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be confined in the
county or regional jail for not less than twenty-four hours nor
more than six months, fined not more than two hundred dollars, or
both fined and imprisoned.
(e) For purposes of this section:
(1) "Police officer" means any person employed by the state
police, any person employed by the state to perform
law-enforcement duties, any person employed by a political
subdivision of this state who is responsible for the prevention
or detection of crime and the enforcement of the penal, traffic
or highway laws of this state or employed as a special police
officer as such is defined in section forty-one, article three,
chapter sixty-one of this code.
(2) "Employee of an urban mass transportation system" means
any person employed by an urban mass transportation system as
such is defined in section three, article twenty-seven, chapter
eight of this code or by a system that receives federal transit
administration funding under 49 U.S.C. §§ 5307 or 5311.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be
stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new
language that would be added.