GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 2007

H                                                                                                                                                    1

HOUSE BILL 554

Short Title:     Assault Disabled Person/Institutional Setting-AB		(Public)
Sponsors:	Representatives Insko;  Alexander, Fisher, Harrison, McGee, Wainwright, and Womble.
Referred to:	Judiciary I.

March 12, 2007

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT to increase the criminal penalty for assault on a patient in a health care facility or resident of a residential care facility when the conduct evinces a pattern of behavior, is willful or culpably negligent, and causes bodily injury to the patient or resident.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 14‑32.2(b) reads as rewritten:

"(b)      Unless the conduct is prohibited by some other provision of law providing for greater punishment,

(1)       A violation of subsection (a) above is a Class C felony where intentional conduct proximately causes the death of the patient or resident;

(2)       A violation of subsection (a) above is a Class E felony where culpably negligent conduct proximately causes the death of the patient or resident;

(3)       A violation of subsection (a) above is a Class F felony where such conduct is willful or culpably negligent and proximately causes serious bodily injury to the patient or resident. resident;

(4)       A violation of subsection (a) is a Class A1 misdemeanor Class F felony where such conduct evinces a pattern of conduct and the conduct is willful or culpably negligent and proximately causes bodily injury to a patient or resident."

SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective December 1, 2007, and applies to offenses committed on or after that date.