SB 473 — Creating felony offense of using electronic device to threaten violence

WESTSB473 VIRGINIAH LEGISLATUREJUD REGULARAM SESSION#1Morgan Committee3345 The Substitute for Senate Bill 473 B YSENATORS MORRIS, HAMILTO, WOELFEL,ANDD EEDS [Reported February 5, 2026, from the Committee on the Judiciary]Judiciary CSmoved for SB 473 A BILL to amend and reenact §61-3C-14a of the Codecommittee ofsubstitute Westby Virginia,striking 1931,everything asafter amended,the relatingenacting toclause creatingand felonyinserting offensein forlieu usingthereof electronicthe communicationfollowing: devices to threaten crimes of violence;

amending  definitions;ARTICLE 3C.

creating criminal offense for person using an electronic communication device to threaten a crime of violence in certain circumstances;

describing burden of proof;

prohibiting use of certain defense;

and providing penalties.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

ARTICLE 3C.

(a) It is unlawful for any person, with the intent to harass or abuse another person, to use a computer, mobile phone, personal digital assistant or other an electronic communication device to:to:(1) Make contact with another person without disclosing his or her identity with the intent to harass or abuse;(2) Make contact with a person after being requested by the person to desist from contacting them:

(1) Make contact with another person without disclosing his or her identity with the intent to harass or abuse;

(2) Make contact with a person after being requested by the person to desist from contacting them:

of this code, does not violate this subsection;subsection;(3) Threaten to commit a crime against any person or property;

(3)or(4) ThreatenCause obscene material to commitbe delivered or transmitted to a crimespecific againstperson after being requested to desist from sending such material.(b) For purposes of this section:(1)  "Electronic communication device" means and includes a telephone, wireless phone, computer, pager, gaming device, or any other electronic or wireless device which is capable of transmitting a document, image, voice, e-mail or text message using such device in an electronic, digital, or analog form from one person or property;location so it may be viewed or received by another person or persons at other locations.(2) "Use of a computer, mobile phone, personal digital assistant, or other an electronic communication device" includes, but is not limited to, the transmission of text messages, electronic mail, photographs, videos, images or other non-voice data by means of an electronic communication system, and includes the transmission of such data, documents, messages, and images to another's computer, e-mail account, mobile phone, personal digital assistant, or other electronic communication device.

or(3) (4)"Obscene Causematerial" obscenemeans material that:(A) An average person, applying contemporary adult community standards, would find, taken as a whole, appeals to bethe deliveredprurient interest, is intended to appeal to the prurient interest, or transmittedis pandered to a specificprurient personinterest;(B) afterAn beingaverage requestedperson, toapplying desistcontemporary fromadult sendingcommunity suchstandards, material.would find, depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexually explicit conduct consisting of an ultimate sexual act, normal or perverted, actual or simulated, an excretory function, masturbation, lewd exhibition of the genitals, or sadomasochistic sexual abuse;

(b)and(C) ForA purposesreasonable person would find, taken as a whole, lacks literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.(c) It is unlawful for any person to knowingly permit a computer, mobile phone or personal digital assistant or other an electronic communication device under his or her control to be used for any purpose prohibited by this section.(d) Any offense committed under this section may be determined to have occurred at the place at which the contact originated or the place at which the contact was received or intended to be received.(e) Any person who violates a provision of this section:section is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than $500 or confined in jail not more than six months, or both fined and confined.

(1)For “Crimea second or subsequent offense, the person is guilty of violence"a meansmisdemeanor anyand, actupon involvingconviction thethereof, use,shall be fined not more than $1,000 or threatconfined ofin thejail use,for ofnot violentmore forcethan againstone anotheryear, person.or both fined and confined.    ARTICLE 6.

(1)CRIMES (2)AGAINST "ElectronicTHE communicationPEACE. device" means and includes a telephone, wireless phone, computer, pager, gaming device, or any other electronic or wireless device which is CS for SB 473 capable of transmitting a document, image, voice, e-mail or text message using such device in an electronic, digital, or analog form from one person or location so it may be viewed or received by another person or persons at other locations.

(2)  (3)§61-6-20. "Use of a computer, mobile phone, personal digital assistant, or other an electronic communication device" includes, but is not limited to, the transmission of text messages, electronic mail, photographs, videos, images or other non-voice data by means of an electronic communication system, and includes the transmission of such data, documents, messages, and images to another's computer, e-mail account, mobile phone, personal digital assistant, or other electronic communication device.

(3)Falsely (4)reporting "Obscenean material"emergency meansincident; material that:

(A)definitions; An average person, applying contemporary adult community standards, would find, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest, is intended to appeal to the prurient interest, or is pandered to a prurient interest;

(B)and Anmaking averagethreats person,of applying contemporary adult community standards, would find, depicts or describes, in a patentlycrime offensive way, sexually explicit conduct consisting of anviolence. ultimate sexual act, normal or perverted, actual or simulated, an excretory function, masturbation, lewd exhibition of the genitals, or sadomasochistic sexual abuse;

and(a) (C)For Apurposes of this section:(1) “Crime of violence" means any criminal offense, whether classified as a felony or misdemeanor under the laws of this state, that has, as an element, the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of another.(2) “Threat” means any communication that a reasonable person, in view of the totality of the circumstances, including, but not limited to, the context, the medium of transmission, and the relationship between the communicator and the recipient, would interpret as a serious expression of intent to commit a crime of violence against the person of another, and that would find,cause takenthe asrecipient to be placed in reasonable apprehension of such harm.(3) "Severe public alarm or inconvenience" means the causation of any of the following by a whole,threat lacksof literary,a artistic,crime political,of violence:(A) The evacuation or scientificclosure value.of a building, place of assembly, facility of public transportation, or other public space;(B)  The substantial disruption of public services, including but not limited to emergency response, law enforcement activities, or transportation;(C) Widespread fear or panic among members of the public, as evidenced by multiple reports to authorities or observable public reaction;

(5)or(D) "SeriousAny publicother alarmsignificant orinterference inconvenience"with meansthe anyordinary actactivities of the public that a reasonable person would viewconsider asserious, antaking actinto thataccount the nature, context, and foreseeable consequences of the threat.(b) A person is intendedguilty toof inducereporting panica false emergency incident when knowing the information reported, conveyed, or circulated is false or baseless, he or she:(1) Initiates or circulates a false report or warning of or impending occurrence of a fire, explosion, crime, catastrophe, accident, illness, or other emergency under circumstances in which causesit significantis disruptionlikely that public alarm or fearinconvenience amongwill theresult public.or that firefighting apparatus, ambulance apparatus, one or more rescue vehicles or other emergency apparatus might be summoned;

(c)or(2) ItReports, isby unlawfulword foror action, to any personofficial or quasi-official agency or organization having the function of dealing with emergencies involving danger to knowinglylife permitor aproperty, computer,an mobilealleged phoneoccurrence or personalimpending digitaloccurrence assistantof a fire, explosion, crime, catastrophe, accident, illness, or other anemergency electronicin communicationwhich deviceit underis hislikely that public alarm or herinconvenience controlwill toresult or that firefighting apparatus, ambulance apparatus, one or more rescue vehicles or other emergency apparatus might be usedsummoned, forwhich anydid purposenot prohibitedoccur, bydoes thisnot section.in fact exist;

CSor(3) forReports SBto 473a (d)law-enforcement Anyofficer or agency the alleged occurrence of any offense committedor underincident thiswhich sectiondid maynot bein determinedfact tooccur, haveor occurredan atallegedly theimpending placeoccurrence atof an offense or incident which theis contactnot originatedin orfact theabout placeto atoccur, whichor thefalse contactinformation wasrelating receivedto an actual offense or intendedincident or to bethe received.alleged implication of some person;

(e)or(4) Without just cause, calls or summons by telephone, fire alarm system, or otherwise, any firefighting apparatus, ambulance apparatus, rescue vehicles, or other emergency vehicles.(b) (c) Any person who violates athe provisionprovisions of subsection (a) or(b) (c) of this section is guilty of a misdemeanormisdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than $500 or confined in jail not more than six months, or both fined and confined.confined.(c) (d) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a) (b) of this section, any person convicted of a second or subsequent violation of the provisions subsection (b) of this section or, of a violation of subsection (b) of this section which results in bodily injury to another person is guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than $5,000 nor more than $10,000, or imprisoned in a state correctional facility for a term of not less than one year nor more than five years, or both fined and imprisoned.(e) A person is guilty of communicating a threat to commit a crime of violence when that person, by any means, intentionally communicates a threat to commit any crime of violence against another person, or persons, and causes an evacuation of any building, place of public or other lawful assembly, or facility of public transportation, causes severe public alarm or inconvenience, or is made in reckless disregard of the risk of causing such severe public alarm or inconvenience.

For Upon aconviction secondthat or subsequent offense, the person isshall be guilty of a misdemeanorfelony and,and upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than $2,500 nor more than $1,000$10,000, or confined in jaila state correctional facility for not moreless than one year,year nor more than 10 years, or both fined and confined.confined.(f) Notwithstanding any other provision of this code to the contrary, any person charged with an offense under subsection (e) of this section and who is on pre-trial release, or has been convicted of an offense pursuant to subsection (e) of this section and has had their sentence suspended, been granted probation, released on parole, incarcerated pursuant to §62-11B-4 of this code, been granted work release pursuant to §62-11A-1 of this code, or has been granted any other type of release from confinement, or has been granted a conditional release pursuant to §27-6A-5 of this code pursuant to a criminal charge arising pursuant to subsection (e) of this section, may be prohibited from establishing a residence, or accepting employment,  within 1,000 feet of the location of the place where the violence was threatened to occur throughout the duration of the period that the person is on pre-trial release, supervised post-conviction release, or conditional release:

(f)Provided, AnyThat a person who usesis anon electronicpre-trial communicationrelease deviceor withis theon intentpost-conviction toor threatenconditional tosupervised commitrelease anydue crimeto ofan violencealleged, against another person or personsactual, thatviolation causes an evacuation of anysubsection building,(e) place of assembly,this orsection, facilityshall ofnot publicestablish transportation,a otherwiseresidence, causes serious public alarm or inconvenience,accept oremployment, iswithin made1,000 infeet reckless disregard of the riskresidence of causingany suchthreatened seriousperson publicthroughout alarmthe orduration inconvenience, is guilty of athe felonyperiod and,that uponthe convictionperson thereof,is shallon bepre-trial finedrelease, notsupervised lesspost-conviction thanrelease, $2,500 nor more than $10,000 or confinedconditional inrelease. a state correctional facility for not less than one year nor more than 10 years, or both fined and confined.

(g) ToAny proveoffense aalleged "threat"to underhave been committed pursuant to subsection (f)(e) of this section,section may be determined to have occurred at the stateplace mustat provewhich beyondthe communication originated or the place at which the communication was received or intended to be received.(h) It shall not constitute a reasonabledefense doubtagainst any prosecution pursuant to this section that the defendant knewdid ornot should have knownthe thatability to complete the communicationthreatened wouldviolence.(i) beThe viewedoffenses asset forth in this section are in addition to and separate and distinct from any other offenses set forth in this code.(d) (j) Prior to the sentencing of a threatperson andwho transmittedhas been convicted of a communicationviolation of this section, the court may enter an order directing any law enforcement agency or emergency service provider involved in the emergency response that awishes reasonableto personbe wouldreimbursed viewfor asthe costs incurred by the agency or provider during the emergency response, to file with the court within a threat.specified time an itemized statement of those costs.

(1)The Itcourt ismay notthen aorder defensethe offender to anyreimburse prosecutionthe underagency subsectionfor (f)all or a portion of thisthose sectioncosts.(e) that(k) theThis offendersection diddoes not haveapply theto abilityany toperson actuallyconducting completean theauthorized threatedemergency violence.drill.  AdoptedRejected 

(2) It is not be a defense to any prosecution under subsection (f) of this section that the conduct charged or proven is also a crime under any other provision or provisions of this code.

(h) Notwithstanding any other provision of this code to the contrary, any person charged or convicted of an offense under subsection (f) of this section and who is released on bail, granted probation or a suspended sentence, released on parole, probation, home detention, work release, CS for SB 473 conditional release, or any other type of release of confinement may not knowingly and intentionally reside, be employed, or otherwise be present at any time, at any location within 3,000 feet of the location of either the place where the violence was threatened to occur or the individual or individuals during the period of release.