Opinion ID: 2745935
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Criminal Contempt Under the Penal Law

Text: Contempt may also be a crime punishable under New York's Penal Law (see generally Penal Law §§ 215.50 [second degree], 215.51 [first degree] and 215.52 [aggravated]).2 The language of Penal Law § 215.50, the section under which defendant was charged, closely resembles its Judiciary Law counterpart, making unlawful, inter alia, [d]isorderly, contemptuous, or insolent behavior, committed during the sitting of a court . . . (215.50 [1]); [i]ntentional disobedience or resistance to the lawful process or other mandate of a court (§ 215.50 [3]); or [c]ontumacious and unlawful refusal to be sworn as a witness in any court proceeding or, after being sworn, to answer any legal and proper interrogatory (§ 215.50 [4]). As with Judiciary Law section 776, the Penal Law similarly states that an adjudication of criminal contempt under the Judiciary Law serves as no bar to prosecution for criminal contempt. Penal Law section 215.54 provides: Adjudication for criminal contempt under 2 Penal Law § 215.51 criminalizes, in addition to what is proscribed by § 215.50, the intentional disobedience of a court imposed order of protection by intimidation, harassment or the use or threat of violence (§ 215.51 [b] et seq.). Penal Law § 215.52 makes the repeated contemnor subject to a class D felony. - 11 - - 12 - No. 159 subdivision A of section seven hundred fifty of the judiciary law shall not bar a prosecution for the crime of criminal contempt under section 215.50 based upon the same conduct but, upon conviction thereunder, the court, in sentencing the defendant shall take the previous punishment into consideration (Penal Law § 215.54). Thus, the Legislature has made clear its intent, as a pure statutory matter, that a person may be subject to punishment pursuant to a finding of contempt under the Judiciary Law, as well as a criminal prosecution under the Penal law.