ENGROSSED

COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE

FOR

Senate Bill No. 398

(By Senator Bailey)

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[Originating in the Committee on the Judiciary;

reported March 29, 2001.]

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A BILL to amend and reenact sections one-b and nineteen, article six, chapter sixty-one of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, all relating to crimes; clarifying that it is a crime to disturb the peace on or in the property of a public agency; making it a crime to bring a dangerous or deadly weapon on the state capitol complex grounds; making it a crime to block or obstruct any public access, stair or elevator; definitions; and penalties.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That sections one-b and nineteen, article six, chapter sixty-one of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 6. CRIMES AGAINST THE PEACE.

§61-6-1b. Disorderly conduct; penalty.

(a) Any person who, in a public place, including, but not limited to, any building or property of any public agency, 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.
(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 agency" means any administrative, judicial or legislative unit of state, county or municipal government, including any department, division, bureau, office, commission, authority, board, public corporation, section, committee, subcommittee or any other agency or subunit of the foregoing, authorized by law to exercise some portion of executive, judicial or legislative power.
(4) "Public parking area" means an area, whether publicly or privately owned or maintained, open to the use of the public for parking motor vehicles.
§61-6-19. Willful disruption of governmental processes.

(a) If any person wilfully willfully interrupts or molests the orderly and peaceful process of any department, division, agency or branch of state government or of its political subdivisions, he or she shall be is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than one hundred dollars or imprisoned in the county or regional jail not more than six months, or both fined and imprisoned confined: Provided, That any assembly in a peaceable, lawful and orderly manner for a redress of grievances shall not be a violation of this section.
(b) Any person who willfully brings upon the grounds of the state capitol complex any dangerous or deadly weapon as defined in section two, article seven, chapter sixty-one of this code is guilty of a misdemeanor. Any person who willfully blocks or obstructs any public access, stair or elevator is guilty of a misdemeanor. Any person convicted of a crime under the provisions of this subsection shall be fined not less than one hundred dollars or confined in the county or regional jail not more than six months, or both fined and confined.
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(NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to clarify that it is a crime to disturb the peace in any office or office building of the state of West Virginia, or in the state capitol complex, or on any other property owned or controlled by the state of West Virginia or political subdivisions. The bill also makes it a crime to bring onto the state capitol complex grounds a dangerous or deadly weapon; making it a crime to block or obstruct any public access, stair or elevator; and setting forth criminal penalties.

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