Ark. Code Ann. § 5-38-205

Impairing the operation of a vital public facility

Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case Duvall v. Sharp (1990)

Most recently applied in 2024 Ark. App. 29 - Seth Fontenot v. State of Arkansas (January 2024)

Acts 1975, No. 280, § 1908; A.S.A. 1947, § 41-1908; Acts 2009, No. 1210, § 1; 2011, No. 1120, § 9.

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citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(1) A person commits the offense of impairing the operation of a vital public facility if, having no reasonable ground to believe he or she has a right to do so, the person knowingly causes a substantial interruption or impairment of an operation of a vital public facility by: Damaging the property of another person;

(2) Incapacitating an operator of a vital public facility; or

(3) Engaging in: A fight or violent and tumultuous behavior; or

(4) Any other conduct that causes a substantial disruption, obstruction, or impediment to the operation of a vital public facility.

(5) Except as provided in subdivision (b)(2) of this section, impairing the operation of a vital public facility is a Class C felony.

(6) Impairing the operation of a vital public facility under subdivision (a)(3) of this section is a Class A misdemeanor.

(7) As used in this section, “vital public facility” includes a county jail, city jail, public detention facility, or temporary holding facility for detained persons.

Current official text: Arkansas General Assembly. Digitized from the UniCourt Code Improvement Commission public-domain capture. Reproduced from public-domain Arkansas statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.