By Armbrister                                         S.B. No. 1123
         76R7779 PEP-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the punishment for assaults committed against certain
 1-3     sports officials.
 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-5           SECTION 1.  Sections 22.01(b), (c), and (e), Penal Code, are
 1-6     amended to read as follows:
 1-7           (b)  An offense under Subsection (a)(1) is a Class A
 1-8     misdemeanor, except that the offense is:
 1-9                 (1)  a felony of the third degree if the offense is
1-10     committed against a person the actor knows is a public servant
1-11     while the public servant is lawfully discharging an official duty,
1-12     or in retaliation or on account of an exercise of official power or
1-13     performance of an official duty as a public servant; or
1-14                 (2)  a state jail felony if it is shown on the trial of
1-15     the offense that:
1-16                       (A)  the offense was committed against a family
1-17     member and that the defendant has been previously convicted of an
1-18     offense against a family member under this section two or more
1-19     times; or
1-20                       (B)  the offense is committed against a person
1-21     the actor knows is a sports official and is committed while the
1-22     official is performing duties in the official's capacity as a
1-23     sports official or is committed in retaliation for or on account of
1-24     the official's performance of a duty within the official's capacity
 2-1     as a sports official.
 2-2           (c)  An offense under Subsection (a)(2) or (3) is a Class C
 2-3     misdemeanor, except that:
 2-4                 (1)  an offense under Subsection (a)(2) or (3) is a
 2-5     Class A misdemeanor if the offense is committed against a person
 2-6     the actor knows is a sports official and is committed while the
 2-7     official is performing duties in the official's capacity as a
 2-8     sports official or is committed in retaliation for or on account of
 2-9     the official's performance of a duty within the official's capacity
2-10     as a sports official; and
2-11                 (2)  an offense under Subsection (a)(3) is a Class A
2-12     misdemeanor if the offense was committed against an elderly
2-13     individual or disabled individual, as those terms are defined by
2-14     Section 22.04.
2-15           (e)  In this section:
2-16                 (1)  "Family" [, "family"] has the meaning assigned by
2-17     Section 71.003 [71.01], Family Code.
2-18                 (2)  "Sports official" means a person who serves in any
2-19     official capacity with respect to an interscholastic,
2-20     intercollegiate, or other organized amateur or professional
2-21     athletic competition and includes a referee, umpire, linesman,
2-22     coach, instructor, administrator, or staff member.
2-23           SECTION 2.  The change in law made by this Act applies only
2-24     to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act.
2-25     An offense committed before the effective date of this Act is
2-26     covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed, and
2-27     the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.  For
 3-1     purposes of this section, an offense was committed before the
 3-2     effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurred
 3-3     before that date.
 3-4           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1999.
 3-5           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the
 3-6     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
 3-7     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
 3-8     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
 3-9     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.