Legal Question in Criminal Law in Texas
Hi. I have been recieving harassing emails from a former employee. To my knowledge, email is as far as it has gone (no websites dedicated to my demise... that I know of), but they are mean and hateful, cursing me up and down, and FULL of boldfaced lies that (if they got out) could potentially destroy my business. He hasn't "threatened" me... yet ( I have been HOPING he would so I can stop this madness ). My question is: Aside from "Changing my email address", etc... is there anything I can do to take action if he hasn't been explicitly threatening? If I send him an email saying to stop and I STILL get messages from him, is THAT a reason to go to the authorities? Thank you!
1 Answer from Attorneys
He does not need to threaten you to violate the law. It sounds like he is committing the offense of harassment. Here is the harrassment statute:
� 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 ommunication, 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.
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