Criminal Threats - Of Crimes And Punishments - Penal Law - CA

Section § 422

If someone intentionally threatens to commit a crime that could result in death or serious injury to someone else, intending for that threat to be taken seriously, and the threat is clear and immediate enough to make the person afraid for their safety or their family's safety, they can be jailed for up to a year or imprisoned in state prison.

This law also clarifies that 'immediate family' includes a wide range of relatives and household members, even if they are no longer living with the person. It also defines 'electronic communication device' broadly to include phones, computers, and other electronic devices.

(a) Any person who willfully threatens to commit a crime which will result in death or great bodily injury to another person, with the specific intent that the statement, made verbally, in writing, or by means of an electronic communication device, is to be taken as a threat, even if there is no intent of actually carrying it out, which, on its face and under the circumstances in which it is made, is so unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific as to convey to the person threatened, a gravity of purpose and an immediate prospect of execution of the threat, and thereby causes that person reasonably to be in sustained fear for his or her own safety or for his or her immediate family’s safety, shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail not to exceed one year, or by imprisonment in the state prison.

(b) For purposes of this section, “immediate family” means any spouse, whether by marriage or not, parent, child, any person related by consanguinity or affinity within the second degree, or any other person who regularly resides in the household, or who, within the prior six months, regularly resided in the household.

(c) “Electronic communication device” includes, but is not limited to, telephones, cellular telephones, computers, video recorders, fax machines, or pagers. “Electronic communication” has the same meaning as the term defined in Subsection 12 of Section 2510 of Title 18 of the United States Code.

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Section § 422.1

If someone is convicted of certain types of false report felonies, they must pay back those affected by the costs arising from their crime. This includes compensating any individual, business, or entity for expenses like clean-up, property damage, and emergency responses.

Public and private entities can also receive restitution for emergency response costs, including any overtime expenses.

The amount a government entity can claim for emergency responses is determined separately from guilt and should not exceed reasonable costs.

The court will consider compensation to immediate victims when calculating government restitution.

Every person who is convicted of a felony violation of Section 148.1 or 11418.1, under circumstances in which the defendant knew the underlying report was false, in addition to being ordered to comply with all other applicable restitution requirements and fine and fee provisions, shall also be ordered to pay full restitution to each of the following:

(a) Any person, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, association, joint venture, government, governmental subdivision, agency or instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity for any personnel, equipment, material, or clean up costs, and for any property damage, caused by the violation directly, or stemming from any emergency response to the violation or its aftermath.

(b) Any public or private entity incurring any costs for actual emergency response, for all costs of that response and for any clean up costs, including any overtime paid to uninvolved personnel made necessary by the allocation of resources to the emergency response and clean up.

(c) Restitution for the costs of response by a government entity under this section shall be determined in a hearing separate from the determination of guilt. The court shall order restitution in an amount no greater than the reasonable costs of the response. The burden shall be on the people to prove the reasonable costs of the response.

(d) In determining the restitution for the costs of response by a government entity, the court shall consider the amount of restitution to be paid to the direct victim, as defined in subdivision (k) of Section 1202.4.

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Section § 422.4

This law makes it a crime to publish information about an academic researcher or their family, like their location, intending for someone else to use it to commit a violent crime or make threats. If doing so is likely to lead to a crime, the person responsible can be fined up to $1,000, jailed for up to a year, or both.

The term 'publishes' includes sharing information via any method, such as on the Internet. 'Academic researcher' is defined as it is in another law, and 'immediate family' includes spouses, domestic partners, close relatives, or anyone living in the household. The term 'information' covers various forms of media like photos or videos.

An academic researcher can seek a court order to stop further publication of such information, but this doesn’t apply to activities protected under certain legal provisions. The law also doesn’t apply to lawful union activities protected by law or affect other legal charges that might apply.

(a) Any person who publishes information describing or depicting an academic researcher or his or her immediate family member, or the location or locations where an academic researcher or an immediate family member of an academic researcher may be found, with the intent that another person imminently use the information to commit a crime involving violence or a threat of violence against an academic researcher or his or her immediate family member, and the information is likely to produce the imminent commission of such a crime, is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for not more than one year, a fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both a fine and imprisonment.

(b) For the purposes of this section, all of the following apply:

(1) “Publishes” means making the information available to another person through any medium, including, but not limited to, the Internet, the World Wide Web, or e-mail.

(2) “Academic researcher” has the same meaning as in Section 602.12.

(3) “Immediate family” means any spouse, whether by marriage or not, domestic partner, parent, child, any person related by consanguinity or affinity within the second degree, or any other person who regularly resides in the household, or who, within the prior six months, regularly resided in the household.

(4) “Information” includes, but is not limited to, an image, film, filmstrip, photograph, negative, slide, photocopy, videotape, video laser disc, or any other computer-generated image.

(c) Any academic researcher about whom information is published in violation of subdivision (a) may seek a preliminary injunction enjoining any further publication of that information. This subdivision shall not apply to a person or entity protected pursuant to Section 1070 of the Evidence Code.

(d) This section shall not apply to any person who is lawfully engaged in labor union activities that are protected under state or federal law.

(e) This section shall not preclude prosecution under any other provision of law.

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