A 8993: Increases penalties for assaulting, stalking, or harassing an elected official.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 8993 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN ASSEMBLY August 13, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. K. BROWN -- read once and referred to the Commit- tee on Codes AN ACT to amend the penal law, in relation to increasing penalties for assaulting, stalking, or harassing an elected official The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Section 120.09 of the penal law, as amended by section 3 of 2 part F of chapter 55 of the laws of 2024, is amended to read as follows: 3 § 120.09 Assault on a judge or elected official. 4 A person is guilty of assault on a judge or elected official when[, 5 with]: 6 1. With intent to prevent a judge from performing official judicial 7 duties, such person causes serious physical injury to such judge. For 8 the purposes of this [section] subdivision, the term [judge] "judge" 9 shall mean a judge of a court of record or a justice court; or 10 2. With intent to prevent an elected official from performing official 11 duties, such person causes serious physical injury to such elected offi- 12 cial. For the purposes of this subdivision, the term "elected official" 13 shall mean an elected official of the state of New York or of any coun- 14 ty, city, town, village, or other political subdivision thereof, includ- 15 ing, but not limited to, anyone elected to a town board, library board, 16 or school board. 17 Assault on a judge or elected official is a class C felony. 18 § 2. Section 120.09-a of the penal law, as added by section 4 of part 19 F of chapter 55 of the laws of 2024, is amended to read as follows: 20 § 120.09-a Aggravated assault on a judge or elected official. 21 A person is guilty of aggravated assault on a judge or elected offi- 22 cial when[, with]: 23 1. With intent to cause serious physical injury and prevent a judge 24 from performing official judicial duties, such person causes serious 25 physical injury to such judge. For the purposes of this [section] subdi- EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD13578-01-5 
 A. 8993 2 1 vision, the term [judge] "judge" shall mean a judge of a court of record 2 or a justice court; or 3 2. With intent to cause serious physical injury and prevent an elected 4 official from performing official duties, such person causes serious 5 physical injury to such elected official. For the purposes of this 6 subdivision, the term "elected official" shall mean an elected official 7 of the state of New York or of any county, city, town, village, or other 8 political subdivision thereof, including, but not limited to, anyone 9 elected to a town board, library board, or school board. 10 Aggravated assault on a judge or elected official is a class B felony. 11 § 3. The penal law is amended by adding a new section 120.59 to read 12 as follows: 13 § 120.59 Stalking a judge or elected official. 14 A person is guilty of stalking a judge or elected official when they 15 commit the crime of stalking in the third degree as defined in subdivi- 16 sion three of section 120.50 or stalking in the second degree as defined 17 in section 120.55 of this article and the victim of such crime is a 18 judge or elected official or a member of such judge's or elected offi- 19 cial's immediate family. Nothing in this section shall restrict communi- 20 cation with an elected official regarding their capacity as a public 21 servant. 22 For the purposes of this section, the term "judge" shall mean a judge 23 of a court of record or a justice court. For the purposes of this 24 section, the term "elected official" shall mean an elected official of 25 the state of New York or of any city, county, town, village or other 26 political subdivision thereof, including, but not limited to, anyone 27 elected to a town board, library board, or school board. 28 Stalking a judge or elected official is a class D felony. 29 § 4. Section 240.33 of the penal law, as added by section 5 of part F 30 of chapter 55 of the laws of 2024, is amended to read as follows: 31 § 240.33 Aggravated harassment of a judge or elected official. 32 A person is guilty of aggravated harassment of a judge or elected 33 official when: 34 1. With intent to harass another person, the actor either: 35 (a) communicates, anonymously or otherwise, by telephone, by computer 36 or any other electronic means, or by mail, or by transmitting or deliv- 37 ering any other form of communication, a threat to cause physical harm 38 to, or unlawful harm to the property of, a person the actor knows or 39 reasonably should know is a judge or elected official, or a member of 40 such judge's or elected official's immediate family, and the actor knows 41 or reasonably should know that such communication will cause such judge 42 or elected official to reasonably fear harm to such judge's physical 43 safety or property, or to the physical safety or property of a member of 44 such judge's or elected official's immediate family; or 45 (b) causes a communication to be initiated anonymously or otherwise, 46 by telephone, by computer or any other electronic means, or by mail, or 47 by transmitting or delivering any other form of communication, a threat 48 to cause physical harm to, or unlawful harm to the property of, a person 49 the actor knows or reasonably should know is a judge or elected 50 official, or a member of such judge's or elected official's immediate 51 family, and the actor knows or reasonably should know that such communi- 52 cation will cause such judge or elected official to reasonably fear harm 53 to such person's physical safety or property, or to the physical safety 54 or property of a member of such judge's or elected official's immediate 55 family; or 
 A. 8993 3 1 2. With intent to harass or threaten a person the actor knows or 2 reasonably should know is a judge or elected official or a member of 3 such judge's or elected official's immediate family, the actor makes a 4 telephone call, whether or not a conversation ensues, with no purpose of 5 legitimate communication; or 6 3. With the intent to harass, annoy, threaten or alarm a person the 7 actor knows or reasonably should know is a judge or elected official or 8 a member of such judge's or elected official's immediate family, the 9 actor strikes, shoves, kicks, or otherwise subjects another person to 10 physical contact, or attempts or threatens to do the same because of a 11 belief or perception regarding such person's race, color, national 12 origin, ancestry, gender, gender identity or expression, religion, reli- 13 gious practice, age, disability or sexual orientation, regardless of 14 whether the belief or perception is correct; or 15 4. With the intent to harass, annoy, threaten or alarm a person the 16 actor knows or reasonably should know is a judge or elected official or 17 a member of such judge's or elected official's immediate family, the 18 actor strikes, shoves, kicks or otherwise subjects another person to 19 physical contact thereby causing physical injury to such person or to an 20 immediate family member of such person; or 21 5. With the intent to harass, annoy, threaten or alarm a person the 22 actor knows or reasonably should know is a judge or elected official or 23 a member of such judge's or elected official's immediate family, the 24 actor commits the crime of criminal trespass in the third degree as 25 defined by section 140.10 of this chapter against a person the actor 26 knows or reasonably should know is a judge or elected official or a 27 member of such judge's or elected official's immediate family; or 28 6. The actor commits the crime of harassment in the first degree 29 against a person the actor knows or reasonably should know is a judge or 30 elected official or a member of such judge's or elected official's imme- 31 diate family and has previously been convicted of the crime of harass- 32 ment in the first degree as defined by section 240.25 of this article 33 within the preceding ten years. 34 For purposes of this section: 35 (a) "judge" shall mean a judge of a court of record or a justice 36 court[; and]. 37 (b) "immediate family" shall have the same meaning as defined in 38 section 120.40 of this chapter. 39 (c) "elected official" shall mean an elected official of the state of 40 New York or of any county, city, town, village, or other political 41 subdivision thereof, including, but not limited to, anyone elected to a 42 town board, library board, or school board. 43 Aggravated harassment of a judge or elected official is a class E 44 felony. 45 § 5. This act shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall 46 have become a law.