By Moncrief                                            S.B. No. 126
       74R1381 GWK-D
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to the requirement that a victim of the offense of
    1-3  stalking must have previously reported the stalking conduct.
    1-4        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-5        SECTION 1.  Section 42.07(a), Penal Code, is amended to read
    1-6  as follows:
    1-7        (a)  A person commits an offense if, with intent to harass,
    1-8  annoy, alarm, abuse, torment, or embarrass another, he:
    1-9              (1)  initiates communication by telephone or in writing
   1-10  and in the course of the communication makes a comment, request,
   1-11  suggestion, or proposal that is obscene;
   1-12              (2)  threatens, by telephone or in writing, in a manner
   1-13  reasonably likely to alarm the person receiving the threat, to
   1-14  inflict bodily injury on the person or to commit a felony against
   1-15  the person, a member of his family, or his property;
   1-16              (3)  conveys, in a manner reasonably likely to alarm
   1-17  the person receiving the report, a false report, which is known by
   1-18  the conveyor to be false, that another person has suffered death or
   1-19  serious bodily injury;
   1-20              (4)  causes the telephone of another to ring repeatedly
   1-21  or makes repeated telephone communications anonymously or in a
   1-22  manner reasonably likely to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment,
   1-23  embarrass, or offend another;
   1-24              (5)  makes a telephone call and intentionally fails to
    2-1  hang up or disengage the connection;
    2-2              (6)  knowingly permits a telephone under his control to
    2-3  be used by a person to commit an offense under this section; or
    2-4              (7)(A)  on more than one occasion engages in conduct
    2-5  directed specifically toward the other person, including following
    2-6  that person, that is reasonably likely to harass, annoy, alarm,
    2-7  abuse, torment, or embarrass that person; and
    2-8                    (B)  on at least one of those occasions by acts
    2-9  or words threatens to inflict bodily injury on that person or to
   2-10  commit an offense against that person, a member of that person's
   2-11  family, or that person's property<; and>
   2-12                    <(C)  on at least one of those occasions engages
   2-13  in the conduct after the person toward whom the conduct is
   2-14  specifically directed has reported to a law enforcement agency the
   2-15  conduct described by this subdivision>.
   2-16        SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies
   2-17  only to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this
   2-18  Act.  For purposes of this section, an offense is committed before
   2-19  the effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurs
   2-20  before the effective date.
   2-21        (b)  An offense committed before the effective date of this
   2-22  Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed,
   2-23  and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
   2-24        SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1995.
   2-25        SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
   2-26  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   2-27  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
    3-1  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
    3-2  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.