By Deshotel                                            H.B. No. 132
         77R634 KEL-D                           
                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-1                                   AN ACT
 1-2     relating to the prosecution of the offense of harassment.
 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
 1-4           SECTION 1.  Sections 42.07(a) and (b), Penal Code, are
 1-5     amended to read as follows:
 1-6           (a)  A person commits an offense if, with intent to harass,
 1-7     annoy, alarm, abuse, torment, or embarrass another, he:
 1-8                 (1)  initiates communication by telephone, [or] in
 1-9     writing, or by electronic communication and in the course of the
1-10     communication makes a comment, request, suggestion, or proposal
1-11     that is obscene;
1-12                 (2)  threatens, by telephone, [or] in writing, or by
1-13     electronic communication, in a manner reasonably likely to alarm
1-14     the person receiving the threat, to inflict bodily injury on the
1-15     person or to commit a felony against the person, a member of his
1-16     family, or his property;
1-17                 (3)  conveys, in a manner reasonably likely to alarm
1-18     the person receiving the report, a false report, which is known by
1-19     the conveyor to be false, that another person has suffered death or
1-20     serious bodily injury;
1-21                 (4)  causes the telephone of another to ring repeatedly
1-22     or makes repeated telephone communications anonymously or in a
1-23     manner reasonably likely to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment,
1-24     embarrass, or offend another;
 2-1                 (5)  makes a telephone call and intentionally fails to
 2-2     hang up or disengage the connection; [or]
 2-3                 (6)  knowingly permits a telephone that is under the
 2-4     person's control or a device that initiates electronic
 2-5     communications and is under the person's [his] control to be used
 2-6     by another [a person] to commit an offense under this section; or
 2-7                 (7)  sends repeated electronic communications, either
 2-8     signed or anonymously, or sends repeated electronic communications
 2-9     in a manner reasonably likely to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse,
2-10     torment, embarrass, or offend another.
2-11           (b)  In this section:
2-12                 (1)  "Electronic communication" includes:
2-13                       (A)  a communication initiated by electronic
2-14     mail, network call, or a facsimile machine; and
2-15                       (B)  a communication made to a pager.
2-16                 (2)  "Family" has the meaning assigned by Section
2-17     71.003, Family Code.
2-18                 (3)  "Obscene" [For purposes of Subsection (a)(1),
2-19     "obscene"] means containing a patently offensive description of or
2-20     a solicitation to commit an ultimate sex act, including sexual
2-21     intercourse, masturbation, cunnilingus, fellatio, or anilingus, or
2-22     a description of an excretory function.  [In this section, "family"
2-23     has the meaning assigned by Section 71.003, Family Code.]
2-24           SECTION 2.  (a)  The change in law made by this Act applies
2-25     only to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this
2-26     Act.  For purposes of this section, an offense is committed before
2-27     the effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurs
 3-1     before the effective date.
 3-2           (b)  An offense committed before the effective date of this
 3-3     Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed,
 3-4     and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
 3-5           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2001.