ENROLLED
Senate Bill No. 641
(By Senators Wooton, Ball, Dawson, Dittmar, Hunter, Kessler, Minard,
Mitchell, Oliverio, Redd, Ross, Snyder, Deem and McKenzie)
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[Passed March 11, 2000; in effect from passage.]
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AN ACT to amend article eight, chapter sixty-one of the code of
West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section
twenty-eight, relating to creating the offense of criminal
invasion of privacy; definitions; penalties; and enhanced
penalties for second and subsequent offenses.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article eight, chapter sixty-one of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be
amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section twenty-
eight, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 8. CRIMES AGAINST CHASTITY, MORALITY AND DECENCY.
§61-8-28. Criminal invasion of privacy; penalties.
(a) For the purposes of this section, the words or terms
defined in this subsection have the meanings ascribed to them.
These definitions are applicable unless a different meaning clearly
appears from the context:
(1) "A person fully or partially nude" means a male or female
who is either clothed or unclothed so that: (A) All or any part of
his or her genitals, pubic area or buttocks is visible; or (B) in
the case of a female only, a part of a nipple of her breast is
visible and is without a fully opaque covering;
(2) "To visually portray" a person means to create a
reproducible image of that person by means of:
(A) A photograph;
(B) A motion picture;
(C) A video tape;
(D) A digital recording; or
(E) Any other mechanical or electronic recording process or
device that can preserve, for later viewing, a visual image of a
person; and
(3) "Place where a reasonable person would have an expectation
of privacy" means a place where a reasonable person would believe
that he or she could, in privacy, be fully or partially nude
without expecting that the act of exposing his or her body was being visually portrayed by another person.
(b) It is unlawful for a person to knowingly visually portray
another person without that other person's knowledge, while that
other person is fully or partially nude and is in a place where a
reasonable person would have an expectation of privacy. A person
who violates the provisions of this subsection is guilty of a
misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be confined in a county or
regional jail for not more than one year or fined not more than
five thousand dollars, or both.
(c) Any person who displays or distributes visual images of
another person with knowledge that said visual images were obtained
in violation of subsection (b) of this section is guilty of a
misdemeanor and, upon conviction, shall be confined in a county or
regional jail for not more than one year or fined not more than
five thousand dollars, or both.
(d) A person who is convicted of a second or subsequent
violation of subsection (b) or (c) of this section is guilty of a
felony and, upon conviction, shall be confined in a state
correctional facility for not less than one year nor more than five
years or fined not more than ten thousand dollars, or both.