SENATE BILL REPORT

                   HB 1636

              As Reported By Senate Committee On:

                 Law & Justice, April 3, 1997

Title:  An act relating to the crime of harassment.

Brief Description:  Specifying imminence of threat to bodily harm for crime of harassment.

Sponsors:  Representatives Ballasiotes, Costa, Tokuda, Keiser, Ogden and Blalock.

Brief History:

Committee Activity:  Law & Justice:  3/24/97, 4/3/97 [DP].

SENATE COMMITTEE ON LAW & JUSTICE

Majority Report:  Do pass.

  Signed by Senators Roach, Chair; Johnson, Vice Chair; Goings, Hargrove, McCaslin and Stevens.

Staff:  Martin Lovinger (786-7443)

Background:  There are several ways a person can commit the crime of harassment.  A person is guilty of harassment if:  (a) without lawful authority, the person knowingly threatens to cause bodily injury in the future to the person threatened or to any other person; and (b) the person places the other person in reasonable fear that the threat will be carried out.  Harassment is usually a gross misdemeanor.  It is a felony if the person harasses another by threatening to kill that person or any other person.

Recently, an appellate court interpreting the language in the harassment statute determined that a threat to cause immediate harm can constitute an assault, but not harassment, because harassment requires a threat to cause harm in the future.  City of Seattle v. Allen.  The court stated that, to prove harassment the prosecutor must prove that the threat was to cause injury at a different time or place than the time or place where the offender made the threat. 

Under Allen, a threat to kill immediately probably would not constitute felony harassment.  Depending upon the circumstances, a threat to kill immediately could be charged as assault in the fourth degree, a gross misdemeanor, or a higher degree of assault.  A person who threatens another with a deadly weapon would probably be charged with assault in the second degree, a class B felony.

Summary of Bill:  Criminal harassment includes a threat to cause bodily injury immediately.

Appropriation:  None.

Fiscal Note:  Not requested.

Effective Date:  Ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.

Testimony For:  This bill eliminates a discrepancy that allows a threat of future harm to be charged as a felony, but a threat of immediate harm to only be charged as a misdemeanor.  If the threat of immediate harm does not involve actual physical contact, a conviction may be difficult to obtain.  This bill addresses an appellate court decision.

Testimony Against:  None.

Testified:  PRO:  Representative Ballasiotes, prime sponsor; Representative Costa; Robin Fox, King County Prosecutor's Office, WA Association of Prosecuting Attorneys.