Senate Bill No. 437

(By Senator Sprouse)

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[Introduced February 4, 2004; referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.]

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A BILL to amend the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated §61-8D-10, relating to providing a criminal offense for falsely reporting child abuse.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated §61-8D-10, 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.