2022 Connecticut General Statutes
Title 53a - Penal Code
Chapter 952 - Penal Code: Offenses
Section 53a-98. - Custodial interference in the second degree: Class A misdemeanor.

(a) A person is guilty of custodial interference in the second degree when: (1) Being a relative of a child who is less than sixteen years old and intending to hold such child permanently or for a protracted period and knowing that he has no legal right to do so, he takes or entices such child from his lawful custodian; (2) knowing that he has no legal right to do so, he takes or entices from lawful custody any incompetent person or any person entrusted by authority of law to the custody of another person or institution; or (3) knowing that he has no legal right to do so, he holds, keeps or otherwise refuses to return a child who is less than sixteen years old to such child's lawful custodian after a request by such custodian for the return of such child.

(b) Custodial interference in the second degree is a class A misdemeanor.

(1969, P.A. 828, S. 100; P.A. 81-280, S. 1.)

History: P.A. 81-280 added Subsec. (a)(3) re failure to return a child to his lawful custodian after a request by the custodian for the child's return.

Cited. 226 C. 652. Language of statute standing alone provided defendant with fair notice of the illegality of his conduct at the time of his actions. 272 C. 762.

Subsec. (a)(3): Legislature intended “refuses to return” to include, at its core, a person who has declined a demand to send back a child to his or her lawful custodian, and this language provides clear notice that it encompasses the behavior of a person who either affirmatively declines to return a child to his or her lawful custodian or declines to take any affirmative steps to return a child to the lawful custodian upon the custodian's request. 197 CA 675.