Provides that filing false liens or encumbrances against public officers or public employees, or with the intent to harass, intimidate or otherwise attempt to affect the actions of the public official or public employee, is a first degree class E felony.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
3902
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
February 21, 2019
___________
Introduced by Sen. RANZENHOFER -- read twice and ordered printed, and
when printed to be committed to the Committee on Codes
AN ACT to amend the penal law, in relation to filing false liens against
public officers or public employees
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 175.35 of the penal law, as amended by chapter 490
2 of the laws of 2013, is amended to read as follows:
3 § 175.35 Offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree.
4 A person is guilty of offering a false instrument for filing in the
5 first degree when:
6 1. knowing that a written instrument contains a false statement or
7 false information, and with intent to defraud the state or any political
8 subdivision, public authority or public benefit corporation of the
9 state, he or she offers or presents it to a public office, public serv-
10 ant, public authority or public benefit corporation with the knowledge
11 or belief that it will be filed with, registered or recorded in or
12 otherwise become a part of the records of such public office, public
13 servant, public authority or public benefit corporation; or
14 2. (a) he or she commits the crime of offering a false instrument for
15 filing in the second degree; and
16 (b) such instrument is a financing statement the contents of which are
17 prescribed by section 9--502 of the uniform commercial code, the collat-
18 eral asserted to be covered in such statement is the property of a
19 person who is a state or local officer as defined by section two of the
20 public officers law or who otherwise is a judge or justice of the
21 unified court system, such financing statement does not relate to an
22 actual transaction, and he or she filed such financing statement in
23 retaliation for the performance of official duties by such person[.]; or
24 3. he or she knowingly files a false lien or encumbrance in a public
25 record or private record that is generally available to the public
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD01642-01-9
S. 3902 2
1 against the real or personal property of a public officer or public
2 employee on account of the performance of such public officer's or
3 public employee's official duties, or with the intent to harass, intim-
4 idate or otherwise attempt to affect the actions of the public official
5 or public employee, knowing or having reason to know that such lien or
6 encumbrance is false or contains materially false, fictitious, or frau-
7 dulent statements or representations.
8 Offering a false instrument for filing in the first degree is a class
9 E felony.
10 § 2. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall
11 have become a law.