By:  Barrientos, Shapleigh                             S.B. No. 962
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
                                       AN ACT
 1-1     relating to the elements of and punishment for the offense of
 1-2     harrassment.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 42.07, Penal Code, is amended to read as
 1-5     follows:
 1-6           Sec. 42.07.  Harassment.  (a)  A person commits an offense
 1-7     if, with intent to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment, or
 1-8     embarrass another, he:
 1-9                 (1)  initiates communication by telephone, [or] in
1-10     writing, or by electronic communications and in the course of the
1-11     communication makes a comment, request, suggestion, or proposal
1-12     that is obscene;
1-13                 (2)  threatens, by telephone, [or] in writing, or by
1-14     electronic communications, in a manner reasonably likely to alarm
1-15     the person receiving the threat, to inflict bodily injury on the
1-16     person or to commit a felony against the person, a member of his
1-17     family, or his property;
1-18                 (3)  conveys, in a manner reasonably likely to alarm
1-19     the person receiving the report, a false report, which is known by
1-20     the conveyor to be false, that another person has suffered death or
1-21     serious bodily injury;
1-22                 (4)  causes the telephone of another to ring repeatedly
1-23     or makes repeated telephone communications anonymously or in a
1-24     manner reasonably likely to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment,
 2-1     embarrass, or offend another;
 2-2                 (5)  makes a telephone call and intentionally fails to
 2-3     hang up or disengage the connection; [or]
 2-4                 (6)  knowingly permits a telephone under his control to
 2-5     be used by a person to commit an offense under this section; or
 2-6                 (7)  knowingly sends repeated electronic
 2-7     communications, either signed or anonymously or in a manner
 2-8     reasonably likely to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment,
 2-9     embarrass, or offend another.
2-10           (b)  For purposes of Subsection (a)(1), "obscene" means
2-11     containing a patently offensive description of or a solicitation to
2-12     commit an ultimate sex act, including sexual intercourse,
2-13     masturbation, cunnilingus, fellatio, or anilingus, or a description
2-14     of an excretory function.  In this section, "family" has the
2-15     meaning assigned by Section 71.01, Family Code.  In this section
2-16     electronic communications includes but is not limited to e-mail
2-17     (electronic mail), pings (network calls), faxes, or pager messages.
2-18           (c)  An offense under this section is a Class B misdemeanor,
2-19     except that the offense is a Class A misdemeanor if the actor has
2-20     previously been convicted under this section.
2-21           SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies
2-22     only to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this
2-23     Act.  For purposes of this section, an offense occurs before that
2-24     date.
2-25           (b)  An offense committed before the effective date of this
2-26     Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed,
 3-1     and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
 3-2           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
 3-3           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
 3-4     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 3-5     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 3-6     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 3-7     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.