(a) Any person who willfully refuses to relinquish a party line or who obstructs or damages
an individual telephone line or telephone set when he or she knows or should have
known that the party line, individual telephone line or telephone set is needed for
an emergency call to a fire department or police department or for medical aid or
ambulance service shall be fined not less than fifty dollars ($50.00) nor more than
three hundred dollars ($300) or be imprisoned ninety (90) days, or both, or any person
who secures the use of a party line by falsely stating that the line is needed for
an emergency call shall be fined not exceeding twenty dollars ($20.00) or be imprisoned
not exceeding three (3) months.
(b) As used in this section:
(1) “Party line” means a subscriber line telephone circuit consisting of two (2) or more
main telephone stations connected with it, each station with a distinctive ring or
telephone number; and
(2) “Emergency” means a situation in which property or human life are in jeopardy and
the prompt summoning of aid is essential.
Notes of Decisions
Cited in
4
cases (
1 in the last 5 years), 2006–2021 · leading case:
State v. Forand, 958 A.2d 134 (R.I. 2008).
State v. Forand, 958 A.2d 134 (R.I. 2008).
· cites it 3× “1956 § 11-5-2 and interference with the use of a telephone in an emergency in violation of G.L. 1956 § 11-35-14. On the assault conviction, the defendant was sentenced to ten years imprisonment, three years to serve; on the conviction for obstructing the use of *136 a telephone,…”
State v. Hesford, 900 A.2d 1194 (R.I. 2006).
· cites it 2× “1956 § 11-5-3 (count 1); (2) refusing to relinquish, damaging, or obstructing a telephone when one knows or should have known that it was needed for an emergency call under G.L.1956 § 11-35-14 (count 2); and (3) disorderly conduct under G.”
State v. Moreno, 996 A.2d 673 (R.I. 2010).
· cites it 2× “1956 § ll-35-14(a), it is a criminal offense for a person to willfully refuse “to relinquish * * * an individual telephone line or telephone set when he or she knows or should have known that the * * * individual telephone line or telephone set is needed for an emergency call to…”
State v. Malik Garcia (R.I. 2021).
· cites it 2× “1956 §§ 11-5-3 and 12-29-2(a)(1); and domestic refusal to relinquish or to damage or to obstruct telephone, in violation of G.L. 1956 §§ 11-35-14(a) and 12-29-2(a)(12).”
— R.I. Gen. Laws § 11-35-14(a) — 1 case
State v. Malik Garcia (R.I. 2021).
“1956 §§ 11-5-3 and 12-29-2(a)(1); and domestic refusal to relinquish or to damage or to obstruct telephone, in violation of G.L. 1956 §§ 11-35-14(a) and 12-29-2(a)(12).”
— R.I. Gen. Laws § 11-35-14(b)(2) — 1 case
State v. Moreno, 996 A.2d 673 (R.I. 2010).
“1956 § ll-35-14(a), it is a criminal offense for a person to willfully refuse “to relinquish * * * an individual telephone line or telephone set when he or she knows or should have known that the * * * individual telephone line or telephone set is needed for an emergency call to…”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the
Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and
treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.