Texas § PE.25.11 - CONTINUOUS VIOLENCE AGAINST THE FAMILY

§ PE.25.11. CONTINUOUS VIOLENCE AGAINST THE FAMILY

CONTINUOUS VIOLENCE AGAINST THE FAMILY. (a) A person commits an offense if, during a period that is 12 months or less in duration, the person two or more times engages in conduct that constitutes an offense under Section 22.01 (a)(1) against another person or persons whose relationship to or association with the defendant is described by Section 71.0021 (b), 71.003 , or 71.005 , Family Code. (b) If the jury is the trier of fact, members of the jury are not required to agree unanimously on the specific conduct in which the defendant engaged that constituted an offense under Section 22.01 (a)(1) against the person or persons described by Subsection (a), the exact date when that conduct occurred, or the county in which each instance of the conduct occurred. The jury must agree unanimously that the defendant, during a period that is 12 months or less in duration, two or more times engaged in conduct that constituted an offense under Section 22.01 (a)(1) against the person or persons described by Subsection (a). (c) A defendant may not be convicted in the same criminal action of another offense the victim of which is an alleged victim of the offense under Subsection (a) and an element of which is any conduct that is alleged as an element of the offense under Subsection (a) unless the other offense: (1) is charged in the alternative; (2) occurred outside the period in which the offense alleged under Subsection (a) was committed; or (3) is considered by the trier of fact to be a lesser included offense of the offense alleged under Subsection (a). (d) A defendant may not be charged with more than one count under Subsection (a) if all of the specific conduct that is alleged to have been engaged in is alleged to have been committed against a single victim or members of the same household, as defined by Section 71.005 , Family Code. (e) An offense under this section is a felony of the third degree. Added by Acts 2009, 81st Leg., R.S., Ch. 665 (H.B. 2240 ), Sec. 1, eff. September 1, 2009. Amended by: Acts 2019, 86th Leg., R.S., Ch. 1360 (H.B. 1661 ), Sec. 3, eff. September 1, 2019.