SENATE LAW AND PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE

 

STATEMENT TO

 

SENATE COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR

SENATE, No. 194

 

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

 

DATED: MARCH 7, 1996

 

      The Senate Law and Public Safety Committee reports favorably a Senate Committee Substitute for Senate Bill No. 194.

      This committee substitute establishes the offense of disarming a law enforcement officer or corrections officer.

      Under the provisions of the substitute, a person who knowingly takes or attempts to exercise unlawful control over a firearm or weapon in the possession of a law enforcement officer or a corrections officer at a time when that officer is acting in the performance of his duties and either is in uniform or exhibits evidence of his authority is guilty of a crime of the second degree. A crime of the second degree is punishable by a fine of not more than $100,000, imprisonment for a term of between five and ten years, or both.

      The substitute further provides, however, that it is a crime of the first degree if the offender (1) fires or discharges a firearm taken from a law enforcement officer or corrections officer, (2) uses or threatens to use the firearm or weapon against the officer or any other person, or (3) the officer or other person suffers serious bodily injury as a result of the offenders actions. A crime of the first degree is punishable by a fine of not more than $100,000, imprisonment for a term of between ten and twenty years, or both.

      "Serious bodily injury" is defined in the New Jersey Code of Criminal Justice (N.J.S.2C:11-1) as "bodily injury which creates a substantial risk of death or which causes serious, permanent disfigurement, or protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily member or organ."

      It is the committee's understanding that under current practice a person who attempts to disarm a law enforcement officer is guilty of assault, (a crime of the third degree) and if the officer is injured the person is guilty of aggravated assault (a crime of the third degree).