Senate Bill No. 97
(By Senators Kessler, Hunter, McKenzie, Edgell,
Anderson, Minard, Caldwell, Minear and Sharpe)
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[Introduced January 9, 2002; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend article three-c, 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 fourteen-a, relating to the crime of harassing
another by means of a computer.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article three-c, 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
fourteen-a, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3C. WEST VIRGINIA COMPUTER CRIME AND ABUSE ACT.
§61-3C-14a. Obscene, anonymous, harassing and threatening
communications by computer; penalty.
(a) It is unlawful for any person who, with the intent to harass or abuse another person, uses a computer to:
(1) Make any comment, request, suggestion or proposal which
is obscene; or
(2) Make a contact without disclosing his or her identity;
or
(3) Make contact repeatedly with a person after being
requested by the person to desist from contacting them; or
(4) Threaten to commit a crime against any person or
property.
(b) It is unlawful for any person to knowingly permit a
computer under his or her control to be used for any purpose
prohibited by this section.
(c) Any offense committed under this section may be
determined to have occurred at the place at which the contact
originated or the place at which the contact was intended to be
received.
(d) Any person who violates a provision of this section is
guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be
fined not more than five hundred dollars, or confined in a
county or regional jail not more than six months, or both. For
a second or subsequent offense, the person is guilty of a
misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not
more than one thousand dollars or confined in a county or regional jail for not more than one year, or both.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to make harassing another
by means of a computer a misdemeanor.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.