Bill > S1063

Introduced Session

This bill would upgrade the offense of assault in situations where the victim is disabled or elderly. Under the bill, a person who causes bodily injury to a person with a disability or to a senior citizen who is 60 years of age or older would be guilty of a crime of the third degree and would be sentenced to a mandatory term of imprisonment of three years. Under the bill, a "person with a disability" means a person who by reason of a pre-existing medically determinable physical or mental impairment is substantially incapable of exercising normal physical or mental power of resistance, and includes, but is not limited to, a person determined disabled pursuant to the federal Social Security Act or any other governmental retirement or benefits program that uses substantially the same criteria for determining eligibility. This bill was prompted in part by the brutal assault and mugging of Joey Damiano, a Trenton man with an intellectual disability. According to Trenton police, Joey was beaten and blinded in one eye by an unknown assailant, or group of assailants, as he was taking his daily walk on Washington Street and Roebling Avenue in the Chambersburg section of Trenton. Further, the bill was prompted by recent assaults involving elderly victims. One instance involved an assault and restraint involving a 92 year old woman during a home invasion in Ewing. Another involved the carjacking and robbery of a 78 year old woman at a shopping center in Lawrence.

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Shirley Turner (D)*, 

Introduced in the Senate, Referred to Senate Judiciary Committee (on 01/30/2020)