Public Act 1079 97TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SB2537 Enrolled LRB097 14538 RLC 59393 b

Public Act 097-1079

AN ACT concerning criminal law, which may be referred to as Caylee's law.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Criminal Code of 1961 is amended by changing Sections 12-9 and 31-4 and adding Section 10-10 as follows:

(720 ILCS 5/10-10 new)

Sec. 10-10. Failure to report the death or disappearance of a child under 13 years of age.

(a) A parent, legal guardian, or caretaker of a child under 13 years of age commits failure to report the death or disappearance of a child under 13 years of age when he or she knows or should know and fails to report the child as missing or deceased to a law enforcement agency within 24 hours if the parent, legal guardian, or caretaker reasonably believes that the child is missing or deceased. In the case of a child under the age of 2 years, the reporting requirement is reduced to no more than one hour.

(b) A parent, legal guardian, or caretaker of a child under 13 years of age must report the death of the child to the law enforcement agency of the county where the child's corpse was found if the parent, legal guardian, or caretaker reasonably believes that the death of the child was caused by a homicide, accident, or other suspicious circumstance.

(c) The Department of Children and Family Services Guardianship Administrator shall not personally be subject to the reporting requirements in subsection (a) or (b) of this Section.

(d) A parent, legal guardian, or caretaker does not commit the offense of failure to report the death or disappearance of a child under 13 years of age when:

(1) the failure to report is due to an act of God, act of war, or inability of a law enforcement agency to receive a report of the disappearance of a child;

(2) the parent, legal guardian, or caretaker calls 911 to report the disappearance of the child;

(3) the parent, legal guardian, or caretaker knows that the child is under the care of another parent, family member, relative, friend, or baby sitter; or

(4) the parent, legal guardian, or caretaker is hospitalized, in a coma, or is otherwise seriously physically or mentally impaired as to prevent the person from reporting the death or disappearance.

(e) Sentence. A violation of this Section is a Class 4 felony.

(720 ILCS 5/12-9) (from Ch. 38, par. 12-9)

Sec. 12-9. Threatening public officials.

(a) A person commits threatening a public official when:

(1) that person knowingly delivers or conveys, directly or indirectly, to a public official by any means a communication:

(i) containing a threat that would place the public official or a member of his or her immediate family in reasonable apprehension of immediate or future bodily harm, sexual assault, confinement, or restraint; or

(ii) containing a threat that would place the public official or a member of his or her immediate family in reasonable apprehension that damage will occur to property in the custody, care, or control of the public official or his or her immediate family; and

(2) the threat was conveyed because of the performance or nonperformance of some public duty, because of hostility of the person making the threat toward the status or position of the public official, or because of any other factor related to the official's public existence.

(a-5) For purposes of a threat to a sworn law enforcement officer, the threat must contain specific facts indicative of a unique threat to the person, family or property of the officer and not a generalized threat of harm.

(a-6) For purposes of a threat to a social worker, caseworker, or investigator, the threat must contain specific facts indicative of a unique threat to the person, family or property of the individual and not a generalized threat of harm.

(b) For purposes of this Section:

(1) "Public official" means a person who is elected to office in accordance with a statute or who is appointed to an office which is established, and the qualifications and duties of which are prescribed, by statute, to discharge a public duty for the State or any of its political subdivisions or in the case of an elective office any person who has filed the required documents for nomination or election to such office. "Public official" includes a duly appointed assistant State's Attorney, assistant Attorney General, or Appellate Prosecutor; , and a sworn law enforcement or peace officer; a social worker, caseworker, or investigator employed by the Department of Healthcare and Family Services, the Department of Human Services, or the Department of Children and Family Services.

(2) "Immediate family" means a public official's spouse or child or children.

(c) Threatening a public official is a Class 3 felony for a first offense and a Class 2 felony for a second or subsequent offense.

(Source: P.A. 95-466, eff. 6-1-08; 96-1551, eff. 7-1-11.)

(720 ILCS 5/31-4) (from Ch. 38, par. 31-4)

Sec. 31-4. Obstructing justice.

(a) A person obstructs justice when, with intent to prevent the apprehension or obstruct the prosecution or defense of any person, he or she knowingly commits any of the following acts:

(1) (a) Destroys, alters, conceals or disguises physical evidence, plants false evidence, furnishes false information; or

(2) (b) Induces a witness having knowledge material to the subject at issue to leave the State or conceal himself or herself; or

(3) (c) Possessing knowledge material to the subject at issue, he or she leaves the State or conceals himself; or

(4) If a parent, legal guardian, or caretaker of a child under 13 years of age reports materially false information to a law enforcement agency, medical examiner, coroner, State's Attorney, or other governmental agency during an investigation of the disappearance or death of a child under circumstances described in subsection (a) or (b) of Section 10-10 of this Code.

(b) (d) Sentence.

(1) Obstructing justice is a Class 4 felony, except as provided in paragraph (2) of this subsection (b) (d).

(2) Obstructing justice in furtherance of streetgang related or gang-related activity, as defined in Section 10 of the Illinois Streetgang Terrorism Omnibus Prevention Act, is a Class 3 felony.

(Source: P.A. 90-363, eff. 1-1-98.)