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RCW 9.61.230

Telephone harassment.

Applied in 45 court decisions — leading case 111 Wash. 2d 1 - State v. Smith (1988)

Most recently applied in State Of Washington v. Ricardo Mireles, Jr. (March 2021)

2003 c 53 s 39; 1992 c 186 s 6; 1985 c 288 s 11; 1967 c 16 s 1.

How often courts cite this section

19741980199020002010202180
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) Every person who, with intent to harass, intimidate, torment or embarrass any other person, shall make a telephone call to such other person:

(a) Using any lewd, lascivious, profane, indecent, or obscene words or language, or suggesting the commission of any lewd or lascivious act; or

(b) Anonymously or repeatedly or at an extremely inconvenient hour, whether or not conversation ensues; or

(c) Threatening to inflict injury on the person or property of the person called or any member of his or her family or household;

is guilty of a gross misdemeanor, except as provided in subsection (2) of this section.

(2) The person is guilty of a class C felony punishable according to chapter 9A.20 RCW if either of the following applies:

(a) That person has previously been convicted of any crime of harassment, as defined in RCW 9A.46.060, with the same victim or member of the victim's family or household or any person specifically named in a no-contact or no-harassment order in this or any other state; or

(b) That person harasses another person under subsection (1)(c) of this section by threatening to kill the person threatened or any other person.

Official source: Washington State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Washington statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.