79R5529 MCK-D

By:  Davis of Harris                                              H.B. No. 1559



A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the offense of violating the terms of a court order 
providing for the possession of or access to a child.
	BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:                        
	SECTION 1.  Chapter 25, Penal Code, is amended by adding 
Section 25.055 to read as follows:
	Sec. 25.055.  INTERFERENCE WITH COURT-ORDERED POSSESSION OF 
OR ACCESS TO CHILD.  (a)  A person commits an offense if the person 
takes or retains a child younger than 18 years of age when the 
person knows or should reasonably know that the person's taking or 
retention violates a court order that provides for the possession 
of or access to the child and, in the two years preceding the date of 
that taking or retention, the person has been held in contempt of 
court two or more times for violating the court order that provides 
for the possession of or access to the child.
	(b)  A custodial parent commits an offense if, with the 
intent to interfere with the noncustodial parent's lawful 
possession of or access to a child younger than 18 years of age, the 
custodial parent knowingly entices or persuades the child to not 
participate in a period of the noncustodial parent's possession of 
or access to the child.
	(c)  It is a defense to prosecution under Subsection (a) that 
the person could not return the child to the other parent at the end 
of a period of possession of or access to the child because of 
special circumstances that would have prevented a reasonable person 
from being able to return the child.
	(d)  An offense under this section is a Class B misdemeanor 
unless it is shown on the trial of the offense that the defendant 
has been convicted one or more times under this section, in which 
event the offense is a Class A misdemeanor.
	(e)  If conduct that constitutes an offense under this 
section also constitutes an offense under any other law, the actor 
may be prosecuted under this section or the other law.
	SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 2005.