By: Carona, Barrientos S.B. No. 139
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the prosecution of and punishment for the offense of
1-3 harassment.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 42.07, Penal Code, is amended to read as
1-6 follows:
1-7 Sec. 42.07. HARASSMENT. (a) A person commits an offense
1-8 if, with intent to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment, or
1-9 embarrass another, he:
1-10 (1) initiates communication by telephone, [or] in
1-11 writing, or by electronic communication and in the course of the
1-12 communication makes a comment, request, suggestion, or proposal
1-13 that is obscene;
1-14 (2) threatens, by telephone, [or] in writing, or by
1-15 electronic communication, in a manner reasonably likely to alarm
1-16 the person receiving the threat, to inflict bodily injury on the
1-17 person or to commit a felony against the person, a member of his
1-18 family, or his property;
1-19 (3) conveys, in a manner reasonably likely to alarm
1-20 the person receiving the report, a false report, which is known by
1-21 the conveyor to be false, that another person has suffered death or
1-22 serious bodily injury;
1-23 (4) causes the telephone of another to ring repeatedly
1-24 or makes repeated telephone communications anonymously or in a
1-25 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 the person's
2-5 [his] control to be used by another [a person] to commit an offense
2-6 under this section; or
2-7 (7) sends repeated electronic communications in a
2-8 manner reasonably likely to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment,
2-9 embarrass, or offend another.
2-10 (b) In this section:
2-11 (1) "Electronic communication" means a transfer of
2-12 signs, signals, writing, images, sounds, data, or intelligence of
2-13 any nature transmitted in whole or in part by a wire, radio,
2-14 electromagnetic, photoelectronic, or photo-optical system. The
2-15 term includes:
2-16 (A) a communication initiated by electronic
2-17 mail, instant message, network call, or facsimile machine; and
2-18 (B) a communication made to a pager.
2-19 (2) "Family" has the meaning assigned by Section
2-20 71.003, Family Code.
2-21 (3) "Obscene" [For purposes of Subsection (a)(1),
2-22 "obscene"] means containing a patently offensive description of or
2-23 a solicitation to commit an ultimate sex act, including sexual
2-24 intercourse, masturbation, cunnilingus, fellatio, or anilingus, or
2-25 a description of an excretory function. [In this section, "family"
2-26 has the meaning assigned by Section 71.003, Family Code.]
3-1 (c) An offense under this section is a Class B misdemeanor,
3-2 except that the offense is a Class A misdemeanor if the actor has
3-3 previously been convicted under this section.
3-4 SECTION 2. (a) The change in law made by this Act applies
3-5 only to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this
3-6 Act. For purposes of this section, an offense is committed before
3-7 the effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurs
3-8 before the effective date.
3-9 (b) An offense committed before the effective date of this
3-10 Act is covered by the law in effect when the offense was committed,
3-11 and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose.
3-12 SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2001.