2019 US Virgin Islands Code
Title 14 - Crimes
Chapter 13 - Assault and Battery
§ 298. Aggravated assault and battery
- Whoever commits an assault and battery—
(1) upon an officer in the lawful discharge of the duties of his office, if it was known or declared to the offender that the person assaulted was an officer discharging an official duty;
(2) in a court of justice or in any place of religious worship, or in any place where persons are assembled for the purpose of innocent amusement;
(3) after having gone into the house of a private family and there commits the assault and battery;
(4) being a person of robust health, upon one who is aged or decrepit;
(5) being an adult male, upon the person of a female or child, or being an adult female, upon the person of a child;
(6) by an instrument or means which inflicts disgrace upon the person assaulted, such as a whip, cowhide or cane;
(7) while being in disguise;
(8) and knows the individual assaulted to be a teacher or other person employed in any school and such teacher or other person employed by the school and such teacher or other employee is upon grounds of a school or grounds adjacent thereto, or is in any part of a building used for school purposes; or
(9) and knows the individual assaulted to be a caseworker, investigator, or other person employed by the Department of Health, Human Services or any agency providing outreach services and such caseworker, investigator, or other person is upon the grounds of a public aid office or grounds adjacent thereto, or is in any part of a building used for public aid purposes, or upon the grounds of a home of a public aid applicant, recipient or any other person being interviewed or investigated in the employee’s discharge of his duties, or on grounds adjacent thereto, or is in any part of a building in which the applicant, recipient, or other such person resides or is located—
shall be fined not more than $500 or imprisoned not more than 1 year, or both or if during an act of domestic violence, as defined in 16 V.I.C. § 91(b), be fined not less than $1,000 or imprisoned not more than 5 years. Provided, that whoever, whether under the laws of the Virgin Islands, or of any other jurisdiction, or of the United States, has been once convicted of an assault and battery with deadly weapons under circumstances not amounting to an intent to kill or maim shall, upon conviction of the same offense in the Virgin Islands and upon proof of such former conviction, be imprisoned for a term of not less than 30 days.
