ENROLLED
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 641
(Senators Boley and Love, original sponsors)
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[Passed March 6, 2007; in effect ninety days from passage.]
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AN ACT to amend and reenact §61-2-10b of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to malicious assault, unlawful
assault, battery and recidivism of battery on a police
officer; including malicious assault, unlawful assault,
battery and recidivism of battery on a Public Service
Commission weight enforcement officer as a crime; and
providing criminal penalties.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §61-2-10b of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2. CRIMES AGAINST THE PERSON.
§61-2-10b. Malicious assault; unlawful assault; battery and
recidivism of battery; assault on police officers,
conservation officers, probation officers, humane
officers, emergency medical service personnel,
firefighters, fire marshal, Division of Forestry
employees, Public Service Commission motor carrier
inspectors, Public Service Commission weight
enforcement officers, employees of an urban mass transportation system and county or state
correctional employees; penalties.
(a) Malicious assault. -- Any person who maliciously shoots,
stabs, cuts or wounds or by any means causes bodily injury with
intent to maim, disfigure, disable or kill a police officer,
probation officer, conservation officer, humane officer, emergency
medical service personnel, firefighter, State Fire Marshal or
employee, Division of Forestry employee, county correctional
employee or state correctional employee, employee of an urban mass
transportation system, Public Service Commission motor carrier
inspector or Public Service Commission weight enforcement officer
acting in his or her official capacity and the person committing
the malicious assault knows or has reason to know that the victim
is a police officer, probation officer, conservation officer,
humane officer, emergency medical service personnel, firefighter,
State Fire Marshal or employee, Division of Forestry employee,
county correctional employee, state correctional employee, employee
of an urban mass transportation system, Public Service Commission
motor carrier inspector or Public Service Commission weight
enforcement officer acting in his or her official capacity is
guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be confined
in a state correctional facility for not less than three nor more
than fifteen years.
(b) Unlawful assault. -- Any person who unlawfully but not
maliciously shoots, stabs, cuts or wounds or by any means causes a
police officer, probation officer, conservation officer, humane
officer, emergency medical service personnel, firefighter, State
Fire Marshal or employee, Division of Forestry employee, county correctional employee or state correctional employee, employee of
an urban mass transportation system, Public Service Commission
motor carrier inspector or Public Service Commission weight
enforcement officer acting in his or her official capacity bodily
injury with intent to maim, disfigure, disable or kill him or her
and the person committing the unlawful assault knows or has reason
to know that the victim is a police officer, probation officer,
conservation officer, humane officer, emergency medical service
personnel, firefighter, State Fire Marshal or employee, Division of
Forestry employee, county correctional employee, state correctional
employee, employee of an urban mass transportation system, Public
Service Commission motor carrier inspector or Public Service
Commission weight enforcement officer acting in his or her official
capacity is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall
be confined in a state correctional facility for not less than two
nor more than five years.
(c) Battery. -- Any person who unlawfully, knowingly and
intentionally makes physical contact of an insulting or provoking
nature with a police officer, probation officer, conservation
officer, humane officer, emergency medical service personnel,
firefighter, State Fire Marshal or employee, Division of Forestry
employee, county correctional employee, state correctional
employee, employee of a mass transportation system, Public Service
Commission motor carrier inspector or Public Service Commission
weight enforcement officer acting in his or her official capacity,
or unlawfully and intentionally causes physical harm to a police
officer, probation officer, conservation officer, humane officer,
emergency medical service personnel, firefighter, State Fire Marshal or employee, Division of Forestry employee, county
correctional employee, state correctional employee, employee of an
urban mass transportation system, Public Service Commission motor
carrier inspector or Public Service Commission weight enforcement
officer acting in such capacity is guilty of a misdemeanor and,
upon conviction thereof, shall be confined in jail for not less
than one month nor more than twelve months, fined the sum of five
hundred dollars, or both. If any person commits a second such
offense, he or she is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction
thereof, shall be confined in a state correctional facility for not
less than one year nor more than three years or fined the sum of
one thousand dollars or both fined and confined. Any person who
commits a third violation of this subsection is guilty of a felony
and, upon conviction thereof, shall be confined in a state
correctional facility not less than two years nor more than five
years or fined not more than two thousand dollars or both fined and
confined.
(d) Assault. -- Any person who unlawfully attempts to commit
a violent injury to the person of a police officer, probation
officer, conservation officer, humane officer, emergency medical
service personnel, firefighter, State Fire Marshal or employee,
Division of Forestry employee, county correctional employee, state
correctional employee, employee of a mass transportation system,
Public Service Commission motor carrier inspector or Public Service
Commission weight enforcement officer acting in his or her official
capacity, or unlawfully commits an act which places a police
officer, probation officer, conservation officer, humane officer,
emergency medical service personnel, firefighter, Division of Forestry employee, county correctional employee or state
correctional employee, employee of a mass transportation system,
Public Service Commission motor carrier inspector or Public Service
Commission weight enforcement officer acting in his or her official
capacity in reasonable apprehension of immediately receiving a
violent injury is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction
thereof, shall be confined in jail for not less than twenty-four
hours nor more than six months, fined not more than two hundred
dollars, or both fined and confined.
(e) For purposes of this section:
(1) "Police officer" means any person employed by the State
Police, any person employed by the state to perform law-enforcement
duties, any person employed by a political subdivision of this
state who is responsible for the prevention or detection of crime
and the enforcement of the penal, traffic or highway laws of this
state or employed as a special police officer as defined in section
forty-one, article three of this chapter.
(2) "Employee of an urban mass transportation system" means
any person employed by an urban mass transportation system as such
is defined in section three, article twenty-seven, chapter eight of
this code or by a system that receives federal transit
administration funding under 49 U. S. C. §5307 or §5311.
(3) "Division of Forestry employee" means an officer, agent,
employee or servant, whether full time or not, of the Division of
Forestry.