Select Page

215.50 – Criminal contempt in the second degree

§ 215.50 Criminal contempt in the second degree.

A person is guilty of criminal contempt in the second degree when he
engages in any of the following conduct:

1. Disorderly, contemptuous, or insolent behavior, committed during
the sitting of a court, in its immediate view and presence and directly
tending to interrupt its proceedings or to impair the respect due to its
authority; or

2. Breach of the peace, noise, or other disturbance, directly tending
to interrupt a court’s proceedings; or

3. Intentional disobedience or resistance to the lawful process or
other mandate of a court except in cases involving or growing out of
labor disputes as defined by subdivision two of section seven hundred
fifty-three-a of the judiciary law; or

4. Contumacious and unlawful refusal to be sworn as a witness in any
court proceeding or, after being sworn, to answer any legal and proper
interrogatory; or

5. Knowingly publishing a false or grossly inaccurate report of a
court’s proceedings; or

6. Intentional failure to obey any mandate, process or notice, issued
pursuant to articles sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, or eighteen-a of the
judiciary law, or to rules adopted pursuant to any such statute or to
any special statute establishing commissioners of jurors and prescribing
their duties or who refuses to be sworn as provided therein; or

7. On or along a public street or sidewalk within a radius of two
hundred feet of any building established as a courthouse, he calls
aloud, shouts, holds or displays placards or signs containing written or
printed matter, concerning the conduct of a trial being held in such
courthouse or the character of the court or jury engaged in such trial
or calling for or demanding any specified action or determination by
such court or jury in connection with such trial.

Criminal contempt in the second degree is a class A misdemeanor.

Criminal Laws NY