Bill Text: CA AB1955 | 2019-2020 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Peace officers: injury to a peace officer’s horse or dog.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-03-10 - In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author. [AB1955 Detail]
Download: California-2019-AB1955-Amended.html
|
Amended
IN
Assembly
March 04, 2020 |
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2019–2020 REGULAR SESSION
Assembly Bill
No. 1955
| Introduced by Assembly Member Voepel |
January 17, 2020 |
An act to amend Section 600 of the Penal Code, relating to peace officers.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1955, as amended, Voepel.
Peace officers: injury to a peace officer’s horse or dog.
Existing law makes it a crime to willfully and maliciously injure or poison a horse or dog being used by a peace officer, as provided. If a serious injury is inflicted, existing law requires the person to be punished by imprisonment in a county jail for 16 months, 2 or 3 years, or in a county jail not exceeding one year, or by a fine not exceeding $2,000, or by both this fine and imprisonment. In addition to a felony sentence, existing law requires the person to serve an additional and consecutive term of one year in a county jail if the person acted with intent to inflict injury or death and personally caused death or serious physical injury to the animal, as specified. If a serious injury is not inflicted, existing law requires the person to be punished by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, or by a fine not exceeding $1,000, or by both that fine and imprisonment.
This bill would, in cases in which a serious injury is not inflicted on the horse or dog, increase the maximum fine from $1,000 to $2,000. In a case in which serious injury is inflicted on the horse or dog, the bill would require a felony sentence to be served in the state prison rather than a county jail.
This bill would increase the additional and consecutive term from one year to 2 years in a county jail for a person who acted with intent to inflict injury or death and personally caused death or serious physical injury to the animal. By increasing the punishment for a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Digest Key
Vote: MAJORITY Appropriation: NO Fiscal Committee: YES Local Program:Bill Text
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Section 600 of the Penal Code is amended to read:600.
(a) A person who willfully and maliciously and with no legal justification strikes, beats, kicks, cuts, stabs, shoots with a firearm, administers any poison or other harmful or stupefying substance to, or throws, hurls, or projects at, or places any rock, object, or other substance which is used in such a manner as to be capable of producing injury and likely to produce injury, on or in the path of, a horse being used by, or a dog under the supervision of, a peace officer in the discharge or attempted discharge of the officer’s duties, or a volunteer who is acting under the direct supervision of a peace officer in the discharge or attempted discharge of the volunteer’s assigned volunteer duties, is guilty of a public offense. If the injury inflicted is a serious injury, as described in subdivision (c), the person shall be punished by imprisonment(b) Any person who willfully and maliciously and with no legal justification interferes with or obstructs a horse or dog being used by a peace officer in the discharge or attempted discharge of the officer’s duties, or a volunteer who is acting under the direct supervision of a peace officer in the discharge or attempted discharge of the volunteer’s assigned volunteer duties, by frightening, teasing, agitating, harassing, or hindering the horse or dog shall be punished by imprisonment in a county jail for not exceeding one year, or by a fine not
exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both a fine and imprisonment.
(c) Any person who, in violation of this section, and with intent to inflict that injury or death, personally causes the death, destruction, or serious physical injury including bone fracture, loss or impairment of function of any bodily member, wounds requiring extensive suturing, or serious crippling, of a horse or dog, shall, upon conviction of a felony under this section, in addition and consecutive to the punishment prescribed for the felony, be punished by an additional term of imprisonment in the state prison for one
year. pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 for two years.
(d) Any person who, in violation of this section, and with the intent to inflict that injury, personally causes great bodily injury, as defined in Section 12022.7, to any person not an accomplice, shall, upon conviction of a felony under this section, in addition and consecutive to the punishment prescribed for the felony, be punished by an additional term of imprisonment in the state prison for two years unless the conduct described in this subdivision is an element of any other offense of which the person is convicted or receives an enhancement under Section 12022.7.
(e) A defendant convicted of a violation of this section
shall be ordered to make restitution to the agency owning the animal and employing the peace officer, to a volunteer who is acting under the direct supervision of a peace officer who is using
their horse or supervising their dog in the performance of their assigned duties, or to the agency that provides, or the individual who provides, veterinary health care coverage or veterinary care for a horse or dog being used by, or under the supervision of, a volunteer who is acting under the direct supervision of a peace officer for any veterinary bills, replacement costs of the animal if it is disabled or killed, and, if applicable, the salary of the peace officer for the period of time their services are lost to the agency.
