Bill Text: TX HB818 | 2021-2022 | 87th Legislature | Comm Sub

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Bill Title: Relating to the prosecution and punishment of the criminal offense of harassment; creating a criminal offense.

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 11-3)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2021-05-11 - Laid on the table subject to call [HB818 Detail]

Download: Texas-2021-HB818-Comm_Sub.html

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87R9223 JRR-F
By: Cole, Thompson of Harris, H.B. No. 818
Bell of Kaufman, Holland, Leman, et al.
Substitute the following for H.B. No. 818:
By: Crockett C.S.H.B. No. 818

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to the prosecution and punishment of the criminal offense
of harassment; creating a criminal offense.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Sections 42.07(a) and (c), Penal Code, are
amended to read as follows:
(a) A person commits an offense if, with intent to harass,
annoy, alarm, abuse, torment, or embarrass another, the person:
(1) initiates communication and in the course of the
communication makes a comment, request, suggestion, or proposal
that is obscene;
(2) threatens, in a manner reasonably likely to alarm
the person receiving the threat, to inflict bodily injury on the
person or to commit a felony against the person, a member of the
person's family or household, or the person's property;
(3) conveys, in a manner reasonably likely to alarm
the person receiving the report, a false report, which is known by
the conveyor to be false, that another person has suffered death or
serious bodily injury;
(4) causes the telephone of another to ring repeatedly
or makes repeated telephone communications anonymously or in a
manner reasonably likely to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment,
embarrass, or offend another;
(5) makes a telephone call and intentionally fails to
hang up or disengage the connection;
(6) knowingly permits a telephone under the person's
control to be used by another to commit an offense under this
section; [or]
(7) sends repeated electronic communications in a
manner reasonably likely to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment,
embarrass, or offend another; or
(8) publishes on an Internet website, including a
social media platform, repeated electronic communications in a
manner reasonably likely to abuse or torment or cause emotional
distress to another person, unless the communications are made in
connection with a matter of public concern.
(c) An offense under this section is a Class B misdemeanor,
except that the offense is a Class A misdemeanor if:
(1) the actor has previously been convicted under this
section; or
(2) the offense was committed under Subsection (a)(7)
or (8) and:
(A) the offense was committed against a child
under 18 years of age with the intent that the child:
(i) commit suicide; or
(ii) engage in conduct causing serious
bodily injury to the child; or
(B) the actor has previously violated a temporary
restraining order or injunction issued under Chapter 129A, Civil
Practice and Remedies Code.
SECTION 2. Section 42.07(b), Penal Code, is amended by
adding Subdivision (2-a) to read as follows:
(2-a) "Matter of public concern" has the meaning
assigned by Section 27.001, Civil Practice and Remedies Code.
SECTION 3. Section 37.0151(a), Education Code, is amended
to read as follows:
(a) The principal of a public primary or secondary school,
or a person designated by the principal under Subsection (c), may
make a report to any school district police department, if
applicable, or the police department of the municipality in which
the school is located or, if the school is not in a municipality,
the sheriff of the county in which the school is located if, after
an investigation is completed, the principal has reasonable grounds
to believe that a student engaged in conduct that constitutes an
offense under Section 22.01 or 42.07(a)(7) or (8), Penal Code.
SECTION 4. 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 5. This Act takes effect September 1, 2021.