AB 5

Under current law, it is a crime to intimidate a witness. Current law sets forth

three statutory categories of intimidation: one, preventing or dissuading a victim or

a person acting on the victim's behalf from making a report of the crime; two,

preventing or dissuading the victim or a person acting on the victim's behalf from

causing a complaint, indictment, or information to be sought and prosecuted and

assisting in the prosecution, and three, preventing or dissuading the victim or a

person acting on the victim's behalf from arresting, or causing or seeking the arrest

of, a person in connection with the criminal act.

In

State of Wisconsin v. Freer

, 2010 WI App 9, the court of appeals held that the

statutory language for the second category, causing a complaint, indictment, or

information to be sought and prosecuted and assisting in the prosecution thereof,

should be read so that a person who prevents or dissuades a victim from doing any

one or more of the following is guilty of intimidating a witness: causing a complaint,

indictment, or information to be sought, causing a complaint to be prosecuted, or

assisting in the prosecution.

This bill amends the statutory language to comply with the interpretation set

forth in the

Freer

case.