SF 468 (LSB 2036SV (1) 87)

SENATE FILE 468

BY  COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY

(SUCCESSOR TO SF 209)

(COMPANION TO HF 455 BY BENNETT)

A BILL FOR

An Act relating to the definition of stalking and making penalties applicable.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF IOWA:

    Section 1.  Section 708.11, subsection 1, paragraph b, Code 2017, is amended to read as follows:
   b.  “Course of conduct” means repeatedly maintaining a visual or physical proximity to a person without legitimate purpose, repeatedly utilizing a technological device to locate, listen to, or watch a person without legitimate purpose, or repeatedly conveying oral or written threats, threats implied by conduct, or a combination thereof, directed at or toward a person.
    Sec. 2.  Section 708.11, subsection 2, Code 2017, is amended to read as follows:
   2.  A person commits stalking when all of the following occur:
   a.  The person purposefully engages in a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, or threatened or to fear that the person intends to cause bodily injury to, or the death of, that specific person or a member of the specific person’s immediate family.
   b.  The person has knowledge or should have knowledge that the specific person will be placed in reasonable fear of a reasonable person would feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, or threatened or fear that the person intends to cause bodily injury to, or the death of, that specific person or a member of the specific person’s immediate family by the course of conduct.
   c.  The person’s course of conduct induces fear in the specific person of bodily injury to, or the death of, the specific person or a member of the specific person’s immediate family.
EXPLANATION
The inclusion of this explanation does not constitute agreement with
the explanation’s substance by the members of the general assembly.
   This bill relates to the definition of stalking.
   The bill expands the definition of “course of conduct” for purposes of the definition of the crime of stalking contained in Code section 708.11 to include situations where a technological device is repeatedly used to locate, listen to, or watch a person without a legitimate purpose.
   The bill modifies the elements of the criminal offense of stalking to provide that a person commits the crime of stalking when the person both purposefully engages in a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, or threatened or to fear that the person intends to cause bodily injury to, or the death of, that specific person or a member of the specific person’s immediate family and the person has knowledge or should have knowledge that a reasonable person would feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, or threatened or fear that the person intends to cause bodily injury to, or the death of, that specific person or a member of the specific person’s immediate family. The bill eliminates a current element of stalking requiring the person’s course of conduct to actually induce fear in the victim of bodily injury to or death of the victim or the victim’s family member.
   A person who commits stalking in violation of Code section 708.11 is subject to criminal penalties ranging from an aggravated misdemeanor (confinement for no more than two years and a fine of at least $625 but not more than $6,250) to a class “C” felony (confinement for no more than 10 years and a fine of at least $1,000 but not more than $10,000).