AN ACT to increase the criminal penalty for assault on a patient in a health care facility or resident of a residential care facility when the conduct evinces a pattern of behavior, is willful or culpably negligent, and causes bodily injury to the patient or resident.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 14‑32.2(b) reads as rewritten:
"(b)	Unless the conduct is prohibited by some other provision of law providing for greater punishment.
(1)	A violation of subsection (a) above is a Class C felony where intentional conduct proximately causes the death of the patient or resident;
(2)	A violation of subsection (a) above is a Class E felony where culpably negligent conduct proximately causes the death of the patient or resident;
(3)	A violation of subsection (a) above is a Class F felony where such conduct is willful or culpably negligent and proximately causes serious bodily injury to the patient or  resident;
(4)	A violation of subsection (a) is a Class H felony where such conduct evinces a pattern of conduct and the conduct is willful or culpably negligent and proximately causes bodily injury to a patient or resident."
SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective December 1, 2007, and applies to offenses committed on or after that date.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 28th day of June, 2007.

	_____________________________________
		 Beverly E. Perdue
	 President of the Senate

	_____________________________________
		 Joe Hackney
	 Speaker of the House of Representatives

	_____________________________________
		 Michael F. Easley
	 Governor

Approved __________.m. this ______________ day of ___________________, 2007