2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE THIRTY-THREE - Penal Code (§§ 1 — 4939) › Subtitle 4 - Penal Code of 2004—General Provisions (§§ 4629 — 4732) › PART I - Basic Provisions of Penal Law (§§ 4629 — 4642) › Chapter 288 - Principles for the Application of Penal Law (§§ 4629 — 4642) › Subchapter III - Construction (§§ 4640 — 4642) › § 4642 - Definitions

Except as otherwise construed by the context, the following words and phrases contained in this Code shall have the meaning expressed below:
(a) Knowingly.— Implies personal knowledge. It does not require knowledge of the illegality of the act or omission.
(b) Year and calendar year.— Three hundred sixty-five (365) days, unless it is a leap year, in which case it shall consist of three hundred sixty-six (366) days.
(c) Scanning device.— Means a scanner, reader, skimmer, or any other electronic device that is used to access, read, scan, obtain, memorize or store, temporarily or permanently, information encoded on the magnetic strip or stripe of a payment card.
(d) To appropriate.— Includes to misappropriate, to defraud, to exercise illegal control, to use, to retrieve, to take possession or in any other way to make any property or thing one’s own either temporarily or permanently.
(e) Benefit.— Any benefit, utility, advantage, profit or gain, the term not being limited to a monetary or material gain, but denoting any form of advantage.
(f) Real property.— Includes lands and anything permanently built or grown thereon or adhering thereto.
(g) Personal property.— Includes money, goods, livestock, equipment, devices, information and communication systems, services, motor vehicles or any other object of locomotion, electric power, gas, water or other fluid, waves, mobile or electronic communication signals and identification numbers on paper or electronic medium, things the possession of which may be demanded at a trial, credit vouchers, documents or any other object susceptible to appropriation.
(h) Public document.— Any writing, printed material, paper, book, pamphlet, photograph, photocopy, film, microfilm, audio tape, map, drawing, blueprint, tape or any other material read by machine or electronically produced even though it may never be printed on paper, in electronic file, or any other information or informatics material, regardless of its physical form or features, which is originated or received manually or electronically, or kept in any dependency of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico pursuant to the law, or designated by law as a public document, or any written material which originates in the private sector in the ordinary course of transactions conducted with government dependencies and which is kept permanently or temporarily in any dependency of the Commonwealth due to its administrative usefulness, or legal, fiscal or cultural value.
(i) Re-encoder.— Also known as decoder, means an electronic device that places encoded information from the magnetic strip or stripe of a payment card onto the magnetic strip or stripe of a different payment card.
(j) Occupied building.— Comprises any house, structure, vehicle or other location adapted to provide night accommodation human beings, for doing business in same, for the care of children or persons, for teaching at any level, or for public purposes, provided that the same is in use, even if there are no persons present at the time of the event. It also comprises its annexes, dependencies and the lot on which same is located.
(k) Writing.— Includes any printed material, paper, letter, public deed, notarial document, seal, written document or signature of a person on paper or digital medium, or image, coin, paper money, tokens, credit cards or any other symbol or evidence representing any value, right, privilege or obligation.
(l) Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or Commonwealth.— Comprises the departments, agencies, boards and other dependencies, public corporations, instrumentalities and their subsidiaries, the municipalities and political subdivisions and government branches.
(m) United States.— Means the states of the United States of America, its territories and possessions, the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
(n) Manufacturer.— Means the entity that authorizes the duplication of the audiovisual work, not including the manufacturer of the case or packaging where the audiovisual work is to be kept.
(o) Signature or subscription.— The name written by hand or digitally, or the name or mark or sign made at the request of any person when said person cannot write his/her name, said name being written by another person who shall also sign as a witness next to such a mark or sign.
(p) Public funds.— All moneys, bonds or liabilities, securities, seals, internal revenue vouchers, and evidences of indebtedness, and property belonging to the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, departments, agencies, boards and other dependencies, public corporations and their subsidiaries, municipalities and political divisions. It also includes the money collected by private persons or entities who, by means of agreement or legal authority, conduct transactions or collect municipal licenses, rights, taxes, income taxes, services or any money owed to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico for any other obligation or any other transaction, or for the collection of stamps or fees for public instruments or notarial documents. In the case of bonds, obligations, securities and evidence of indebtedness, the term includes not only the document that evidences the obligation, but also the moneys, bonds, securities or obligations obtained as a result of the issuance, purchase, execution, financing, refinancing or any other transaction with the aforementioned.
(q) Law enforcement officer.— A person in charge of protecting persons and property and to keep public order and safety. This includes, but is not limited to, all members of the Puerto Rico Police and the Municipal Police, Agents of the Special Investigations Bureau of the Department of Justice, and Marshals of the Judicial Branch.
All public Commonwealth or federal employees with the express authority under the law to make arrests in the discharge of their special duties and responsibilities shall also be considered law enforcement officers, albeit with a limited scope.
(r) Fraudulently or to defraud.— An act committed through wile, simulation, plot, trick or by any other form of deceit.
(s) Public officer or employee.— Any person holding an office or performing a duty whether or not for compensation, either permanently or provisionally, by virtue of any kind of appointment, contract or designation, for the Legislative, Executive or Judicial Branch or any the municipalities of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It also includes those persons who represent the public interest and who are designated to office in any board, public corporation, instrumentality and its subsidiaries of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, as well as those who are entrusted with notarial public faith. The term public officer includes those persons who hold office or are employed by the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico who are vested with part of the sovereignty of the Commonwealth; hence they are involved in the making and implementation of public policy.
(t) Illegally.— Any act in violation of any law, rule, regulation, ordinance or order promulgated by any competent authority of the Commonwealth in the exercise of its duty.
(u) Oath.— Includes an affirmation or statement, as well as any other way of confirming the truth about what is being stated. Any form of oral statement under oath or affirmation is comprised within the term “to testify” and any written statement within the term “to depose”.
(v) Law.— Also includes regulations, rule, order or ordinance approved by a competent authority.
(w) Month.— Period of thirty (30) days, unless otherwise stated.
(x) Night.— Period between sundown and sunrise.
(y) Legal name and address.— Means the true name and address of the manufacturer that has authorized duplication of said audiovisual work.
(z) Audiovisual work — Means a tangible medium in which sounds and images are recorded or stored, including original video tapes, digital video disks, films or any other existing or to be developed in future medium and in which the sounds and images are recorded or may be recorded or stored, or a copy or total or partial reproduction duplicating the original.
(aa) Person.— Includes natural and juridical persons.
(bb) Premeditation.— The deliberation occurring prior to the resolve to perpetrate the act after having considered it for some time.
(cc) Property or patrimony.— Includes real and personal property.
(dd) Seal.— Comprises the impression of a stamp on a writ, on paper or digital, or on any substance affixed to the paper with capacity to receive any visible or legitimate impression.
(ee) Credit or debit card.— Includes any instrument or object known as a credit or debit card, placard, coupon book or by any other name, issued with or without payment of a charge by the receiver, for use by the holder in obtaining or acquiring by credit or debit any money, goods, services or any other item of value, in the establishment of the issuer of the debit or credit card or in any other establishment.
(ff) Movie theater/movie house.— Means a movie theater, projection room or any other place mainly used to show a motion picture.
(gg) Voluntarily.— Applies to the intent with which an act is executed or an omission incurred; it simply implies the purpose or will to commit the act or incur the omission to which it refers.
History —June 18, 2004, No. 149, § 14; July 19, 2006, No. 121, § 1; Aug. 6, 2010, No. 121, § 1; Dec. 30, 2010, No. 237, § 1.