Legal Question in Criminal Law in Texas

What happens in court for a harassment charge? Do you need a lawyer? Can it be dropped?


Asked on 6/19/11, 1:04 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Cynthia Henley Cynthia Henley, Lawyer

Here is the statute regarding harassment (which includes everything since you didn't detail the basis of your charge):

� 42.07. HARASSMENT. (a) A person commits an offense if, with intent to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment, or embarrass another, he:

(1) initiates communication by telephone, in writing, or by electronic communication and in the course of the communication makes a comment, request, suggestion, or proposal that is obscene;

(2) threatens, by telephone, in writing, or by electronic communication, in a manner reasonably likely to alarm the person receiving the threat, to inflict bodily injury on the person or to commit a felony against the person, a member of his

family or household, or his property;

(3) conveys, in a manner reasonably likely to alarm the person receiving the report, a false report, which is known by the conveyor to be false, that another person has suffered death or serious bodily injury;

(4) causes the telephone of another to ring repeatedly or makes repeated telephone communications anonymously or in a manner reasonably likely to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment, embarrass, or offend another;

(5) makes a telephone call and intentionally fails to hang up or disengage the connection;

(6) knowingly permits a telephone under the person's control to be used by another to commit an offense under this section; or

(7) sends repeated electronic communications in a manner reasonably likely to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment, embarrass, or offend another.

(b) In this section:

(1) "Electronic communication" means a transfer of signs, signals, writing, images, sounds, data, or intelligence of any nature transmitted in whole or in part by a wire, radio, electromagnetic, photoelectronic, or photo-optical system. The term includes:

(A) a communication initiated by electronic mail, instant message, network call, or facsimile machine; and

(B) a communication made to a pager.

(2) "Family" and "household" have the meaning assigned by Chapter 71, Family Code.

(3) "Obscene" means containing a patently offensive description of or a solicitation to commit an ultimate sex act, including sexual intercourse, masturbation, cunnilingus, fellatio, or anilingus, or a description of an excretory function.

(c) An offense under this section is a Class B misdemeanor, except that the offense is a Class A misdemeanor if the actor has previously been convicted under this section.

You need to hire a lawyer. You can get up to 6 months in jail for a Class B misdemeanor and up to 1 year in jail for a Class A misdemeanor. The charge can be "dropped" as any charge can be but the question for the prosecutor is why would they drop it? If there is a good explanation or reason, your lawyer can communicate this information to the prosecutor.

What happens in court is that the prosecutor seeks to have you convicted of the offense, or, at a minimum, have you plead guilty and be put on probation.

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Answered on 6/19/11, 3:42 pm


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