Senate Bill No. 363
(By Senators Sprouse, Rowe and Sharpe)
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[Introduced January 27, 2003; referred to the Committee on the
Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend article eight-d, 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
ten, relating to providing a criminal offense for falsely
reporting child abuse.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article eight-d, 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 ten, to
read as follows:
ARTICLE 8D. CHILD ABUSE.
§61-8D-10. False reporting of child abuse.
Any person who intentionally and knowingly makes a false
report of sexual or physical abuse of a child to any
law-enforcement agency or to any child protective services in this state is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof,
shall be fined not less than two hundred fifty dollars nor more
than one thousand dollars, or confined to a county or regional jail
for not less than ten days nor more than six months, or both fined
and confined.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide a criminal
offense for falsely reporting child abuse.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.