ENROLLED

COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE

FOR

H. B. 2865

(By Mr. Speaker, Mr. Kiss, and Delegates Browning, Staton,

Beane, H. White, Stalnaker and G. White)


[Passed March 8, 2003; in effect ninety days from passage.]


AN ACT to amend and reenact section twenty-nine, article three, chapter sixty-one of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to crimes against property; and increasing penalties for damaging or destroying real or personal property owned by a railroad company or public utility or any real or personal property used for producing, generating, transmitting, distributing, treating or collecting electricity, natural gas, water, wastewater, stormwater, telecommunications or cable service.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section twenty-nine, article three, 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 3. CRIMES AGAINST PROPERTY.
§61-3-29. Damage or destruction of railroad or public utility company property, or real or personal property used for producing, generating, transmitting, distributing, treating or collecting electricity, natural gas, water, wastewater, stormwater, telecommunications or cable service; penalties; restitution.

(a) Any person who knowingly and willfully damages or destroys any real or personal property owned by a railroad company or public utility company, or any real or personal property used for producing, generating, transmitting, distributing, treating or collecting electricity, natural gas, water, wastewater, stormwater, telecommunications or cable service, is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than two thousand dollars, or confined in the county or regional jail not more than one year, or both.
(b) Any person who knowingly and willfully damages or destroys any real or personal property owned by a railroad company or public utility company, or any real or personal property used for producing, generating, transmitting, distributing, treating or collecting electricity, natural gas, water, wastewater, stormwater, telecommunications or cable service causing serious bodily injury to another is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than five thousand dollars nor more than fifty thousand dollars, or confined in a state correctional facility not less than one nor more than five years, or both.
(c) Nothing in this section may be construed to limit or restrict the ability of an entity referred to in subsection (a) or (b) of this section or a property owner or other person who has been damaged or injured as a result of a violation of this section from seeking recovery for damages arising from violation of this section.