§ 240.26 Harassment in the second degree.\n A person is guilty of harassment in the second degree when, with\nintent to harass, annoy or alarm another person:\n 1. He or she strikes, shoves, kicks or otherwise subjects such other\nperson to physical contact, or attempts or threatens to do the same; or\n 2. He or she follows a person in or about a public place or places; or\n 3. He or she engages in a course of conduct or repeatedly commits acts\nwhich alarm or seriously annoy such other person and which serve no\nlegitimate purpose.\n Subdivisions two and three of this section shall not apply to\nactivities regulated by the national labor relations act, as amended,\nthe railway labor act, as amended, or the federal employment labor\nmanagement act, as amended.\n Harassment in the second degree is a violation.\n
N.Y. Penal Law § 240.26
Harassment in the second degree
Applied in 329 court decisions — leading case Nowakowski v. New York (2016)
Most recently applied in 87 Misc. 3d 135 - People v. Blakely (Tayquan) (December 2025)
2014-09-22
How often courts cite this section
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.
Official source: NYS Open Legislation (New York State Senate). Reproduced from public-domain New York statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.