AB 347

This bill creates an increased penalty for certain batteries or threats. Under

current law, no person may intentionally cause bodily harm to a law enforcement

officer acting in an official capacity, if the actor knows or has reason to know that the

victim is a law enforcement officer. Under current law, no one may intentionally

cause or threaten bodily harm to a judge or a member of a judge's family if the person

knows that the person harmed or threatened is a judge or a family member of the

judge and the person who causes or threatens harm does so while the judge is acting

in his or her official capacity or as a response to an official action by the judge. A

person who commits any of these acts is guilty of a Class H felony and may be fined

not more than $10,000, imprisoned for not more than six years, or both.

Under this bill, a person who intentionally causes or threatens bodily harm to

a judge, a prosecutor, a public defender, or a law enforcement officer, or who

intentionally causes or threatens bodily harm to a family member of any of those

persons, is guilty of Class H felony if the person knows or should know that the victim

is a judge, prosecutor, public defender, or law enforcement officer, or family member

of any of those, if the person commits the offense in response to any action taken in

the judge's, prosecutor's, public defender's, or law enforcement officer's official

capacity, or if the person commits the offense while the judge, prosecutor, public

defender, or law enforcement officer is acting in his or her official capacity.