Relates to repeated instances of harassment giving rise to a charge of aggravated harassment in the second degree and harassment in the first degree; clarifies that the victim of such separate offenses does not need to be the same individual.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
8904
IN SENATE
March 26, 2024
___________
Introduced by Sen. CHU -- 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 repeated instances of
harassment
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivision 5 of section 240.30 of the penal law, as
2 amended by chapter 188 of the laws of 2014, is amended to read as
3 follows:
4 5. He or she commits the crime of harassment in the first degree and
5 has previously been convicted of the crime of harassment in the first
6 degree as defined by section 240.25 of this article within the preceding
7 ten years, regardless of whether or not the alleged victim of such
8 harassment is the same victim from such prior offense.
9 § 2. Section 240.25 of the penal law, as amended by chapter 109 of the
10 laws of 1994, is amended to read as follows:
11 § 240.25 Harassment in the first degree.
12 A person is guilty of harassment in the first degree when [he]:
13 1. He or she intentionally and repeatedly harasses another person by
14 following such person in or about a public place or places or by engag-
15 ing in a course of conduct or by repeatedly committing acts which places
16 such person in reasonable fear of physical injury; or
17 2. He or she commits the offense of harassment in the second degree
18 and has previously been convicted of the crime of harassment in the
19 second degree as defined by section 240.26 of this article within the
20 preceding five years, regardless of whether or not the alleged victim of
21 such harassment is the same victim from such prior offense; or
22 3. He or she engages in a pattern of harassment of multiple individ-
23 uals as the term harassment is defined by section 240.26 of this
24 article.
25 This section shall not apply to activities regulated by the national
26 labor relations act, as amended, the railway labor act, as amended, or
27 the federal employment labor management act, as amended.
28 Harassment in the first degree is a class B misdemeanor.
29 § 2. This act shall take effect on the first of November next succeed-
30 ing the date on which it shall have become a law.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD11880-02-3
