ENROLLED
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE

FOR

Senate Bill No. 39

(Senators Rowe, Helmick, Fanning and Ross, original sponsors)

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[Passed March 7, 2003; in effect ninety days from passage.]

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AN ACT to amend and reenact section twenty-seven, article three, chapter twenty-nine of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to increasing the criminal offense for a false fire alarm to a felony when it is done with intent to cause injury to persons or property to divert attention from another offense.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section twenty-seven, article three, chapter twenty-nine of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3. FIRE PREVENTION AND CONTROL ACT.

§29-3-27. Penalties.

(a) Any person who violates any regulations promulgated by the state fire commission as provided in section five of this article is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than one hundred dollars or confined in the county or regional jail not more than ninety days, or both.
Each day during which any illegal erection, construction, reconstruction, alteration, maintenance or use continues after knowledge or official notice that it is illegal is a separate offense.
(b) Except as provided by the provisions of subsection (c) of this section, any person who violates the provisions of section twenty-one of this article shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined for a first offense not more than one hundred dollars or confined in the county or regional jail for not more than thirty days or both fined and confined and for a second and each subsequent offense fined not less than one hundred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars or confined in the county or regional jail for not less than ninety days nor more than one year, or both.
(c) Any person who violates the provisions of section twenty- one of this article with the intent to cause injury to the person of another, to cause destruction of the property of another or to divert the attention of law enforcement or fire personnel to help effectuate the commission of another crime shall be guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be confined in a state correctional facility for not less than one nor more than three years, or fined not more than five thousand dollars, or both.
(d) Any officer who fails to perform any duty required of him or her by this article or who violates any of its provisions is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than twenty-five dollars nor more than fifty dollars for each failure or violation.
(e) Any person who violates any other provision of this article is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than one hundred dollars or confined in the county or regional jail not more than ninety days, or both.