Bill Text: TX HB3196 | 2015-2016 | 84th Legislature | Comm Sub

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Bill Title: Relating to the prosecution of the offense of improper photography or visual recording; increasing a criminal penalty.

Sponsorship: Bipartisan Bill

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2015-05-12 - Placed on General State Calendar [HB3196 Detail]

Download: Texas-2015-HB3196-Comm_Sub.html

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84R15653 JRR-F
By: Miller of Comal, Thompson of Harris, H.B. No. 3196
Herrero, Moody, Anderson of Dallas
Substitute the following for H.B. No. 3196:
By: Herrero C.S.H.B. No. 3196

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the prosecution of the offense of improper photography
or visual recording; increasing a criminal penalty.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 21.15, Penal Code, is amended to read as
follows:
Sec. 21.15. IMPROPER PHOTOGRAPHY OR VISUAL RECORDING.
(a) In this section:
(1) "Changing room" means a room or partitioned area
provided or primarily used for the changing of clothing, including
a dressing room, locker room, or swimwear changing area.
(2) "Promote" [, "promote"] has the meaning assigned
by Section 43.21.
(3) "Sexual conduct" has the meaning assigned by
Section 43.25.
(4) "Sexual or other intimate parts" means the human
genitals, pubic area, anus, buttocks, or any portion of the female
breast below the top of the areola, regardless of whether those
parts are naked or covered by undergarments or other clothing.
(b) A person commits an offense if the person:
(1) knowingly photographs or by videotape or other
electronic means knowingly records, broadcasts, or transmits a
visual image of the sexual or other intimate parts of another person
or a visual image of another person engaged in sexual conduct [at a
location that is not a bathroom or private dressing room]:
(A) without the other person's consent; and
(B) when a reasonable person would believe that
the person's sexual or other intimate parts or the person's sexual
conduct would not be visible to the public [with intent to arouse or
gratify the sexual desire of any person]; or
(2) [photographs or by videotape or other electronic
means records, broadcasts, or transmits a visual image of another
at a location that is a bathroom or private dressing room:
[(A) without the other person's consent; and
[(B) with intent to:
[(i) invade the privacy of the other
person; or
[(ii) arouse or gratify the sexual desire
of any person; or
[(3)] knowing the character and content of the
photograph, recording, broadcast, or transmission, promotes a
photograph, recording, broadcast, or transmission described by
Subdivision (1) [or (2)].
(b-1) In a prosecution for an offense under this section,
there is a rebuttable presumption that the actor's conduct is
without the consent of the other person if it is shown on the trial
of the offense that:
(1) the actor compelled the other person to submit or
participate by:
(A) the use of physical force or violence; or
(B) threatening to use force or violence against
the other person or another person, and the other person believed
that the actor had the ability to execute the threat;
(2) the other person did not consent and the actor
knew:
(A) the other person was unconscious or
physically unable to resist; or
(B) the other person was unaware that the conduct
was occurring;
(3) the actor knew that as a result of mental disease
or defect the other person was at the time of the offense incapable
either of appraising the nature of the act or of resisting it;
(4) the actor intentionally impaired the other
person's power to appraise or control the other person's conduct by
administering any substance without the other person's knowledge;
(5) the actor was a public servant who coerced the
other person to submit or participate;
(6) the offense was accomplished by:
(A) conduct that was hidden or conducted secretly
or an attempt of such conduct;
(B) conduct that used equipment such as a
telephoto lens that allowed a visual image of another person's
sexual or other intimate parts or another person's sexual conduct
to be made, when such conduct would not ordinarily be visible to the
public; or
(C) deception, including misrepresenting how the
photograph, recording, broadcast, or transmission would be used or
disseminated; or
(7) the victim of the offense was younger than 18 years
of age at the time of the offense.
(c) An offense under this section is a state jail felony,
except that the offense is a felony of the third degree if it is
shown on the trial of the offense that the victim was younger than
18 years of age at the time of the offense.
(d) 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, or both.
(e) In the application of this section to conduct in a
bathroom or changing room [For purposes of Subsection (b)(2)], a
sign or signs posted indicating that the person is being
photographed or that a visual image of the person is being recorded,
broadcast, or transmitted is not sufficient to establish the
person's consent or to negate the person's reasonable expectation
that the person's sexual or other intimate parts or the person's
sexual conduct would not be visible to the public [under that
subdivision].
SECTION 2. The change in law made by this Act applies only
to an offense committed on or after the effective date of this Act.
An offense committed before the effective date of this Act is
governed by the law in effect on the date the offense was committed,
and the former law is continued in effect for that purpose. For
purposes of this section, an offense was committed before the
effective date of this Act if any element of the offense occurred
before that date.
SECTION 3. This Act takes effect September 1, 2015.