914.22 Tampering with a
witness, victim, or informant. ---
(1) A person who knowingly uses intimidation or
physical force, or threatens another person, or attempts to do so,
or engages in misleading conduct toward another person, or offers
pecuniary benefit or gain to another person, with intent to cause
or induce any person to:
(a) Withhold testimony, or withhold a record, document, or
other object, from an official investigation or official
proceeding;
(b) Alter, destroy, mutilate, or conceal an object with
intent to impair the integrity or availability of the object for
use in an official investigation or official proceeding;
(c) Evade legal process summoning that person to appear as
a witness, or to produce a record, document, or other object, in
an official investigation or an official proceeding;
(d) Be absent from an official proceeding to which such
person has been summoned by legal process;
(e) Hinder, delay, or prevent the communication to a law
enforcement officer or judge of information relating to the
commission or possible commission of an offense or a violation of
a condition of probation, parole, or release pending a judicial
proceeding; or
(f) Testify untruthfully in an official investigation or
an official proceeding,
commits a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in
s. 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.
(2) Whoever intentionally harasses another person and
thereby hinders, delays, prevents, or dissuades any person from:
(a) Attending or testifying in an official proceeding or
cooperating in an official investigation;
(b) Reporting to a law enforcement officer or judge the
commission or possible commission of an offense or a violation of
a condition of probation, parole, or release pending a judicial
proceeding;
(c) Arresting or seeking the arrest of another person in
connection with an offense; or
(d) Causing a criminal prosecution, or a parole or
probation revocation proceeding, to be sought or instituted, or
from assisting in such prosecution or proceeding;
or attempts to do so, is guilty of a misdemeanor of the first
degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s.
775.083.
(3) For the purposes of this section:
(a) An official proceeding need not be pending or about to
be instituted at the time of the offense; and
(b) The testimony or the record, document, or other object
need not be admissible in evidence or free of a claim of
privilege.
(4) In a prosecution for an offense under this
section, no state of mind need be proved with respect to the
circumstance:
(a) That the official proceeding before a judge, court,
magistrate, grand jury, or government agency is before a judge or
court of the state, a state or local grand jury, or a state agency;
or
(b) That the judge is a judge of the state or that the law
enforcement officer is an officer or employee of the state or a
person authorized to act for or on behalf of the state or serving
the state as an adviser or consultant.
History: s. 3, ch. 72-315; s. 44, ch. 75-298; s. 14, ch. 84-363; s. 4,
ch. 88-96; s. 12, ch. 91-223; s. 225, ch. 91-224; s. 1, ch.
92-281.
Note. Former s. 918.14.