(a) A person is guilty of assault of public safety, emergency medical, public transit or health care personnel when, with intent to prevent a reasonably identifiable peace officer, firefighter or employee of an emergency medical service organization, as defined in section 53a-3, emergency room physician or nurse, health care employee as defined in section 19a-490q, employee of the Department of Correction, member or employee of the Board of Pardons and Paroles, probation officer, employee of the Judicial Branch assigned to provide pretrial or post-conviction secure detention and programming services to juveniles accused of the commission of a delinquent act, liquor control agent, state or municipal animal control officer, security officer, employee of the Department of Children and Families assigned to provide direct services to children and youths in the care or custody of the department, employee of a municipal police department assigned to provide security at the police department's lockup and holding facility, active individual member of a volunteer canine search and rescue team, as defined in section 5-249, or public transit employee from performing his or her duties, and while such peace officer, firefighter, employee, physician, nurse, health care employee, member, liquor control agent, animal control officer, security officer, probation officer or active individual member is acting in the performance of his or her duties, (1) such person causes physical injury to such peace officer, firefighter, employee, physician, nurse, member, liquor control agent, animal control officer, security officer, probation officer or active individual member, or (2) such person throws or hurls, or causes to be thrown or hurled, any rock, bottle, can or other article, object or missile of any kind capable of causing physical harm, damage or injury, at such peace officer, firefighter, employee, physician, nurse, member, liquor control agent, animal control officer, security officer, probation officer or active individual member, or (3) such person uses or causes to be used any mace, tear gas or any like or similar deleterious agent against such peace officer, firefighter, employee, physician, nurse, member, liquor control agent, animal control officer, security officer, probation officer or active individual member, or (4) such person throws or hurls, or causes to be thrown or hurled, any paint, dye or other like or similar staining, discoloring or coloring agent or any type of offensive or noxious liquid, agent or substance at such peace officer, firefighter, employee, physician, nurse, member, liquor control agent, animal control officer, security officer, probation officer or active individual member, or (5) such person throws or hurls, or causes to be thrown or hurled, any bodily fluid including, but not limited to, urine, feces, blood or saliva at such peace officer, firefighter, employee, physician, nurse, member, liquor control agent, animal control officer, security officer, probation officer or active individual member. For the purposes of this section, "public transit employee" means a person employed by the state, a political subdivision of the state, a transit district formed under chapter 103a or a person with whom the Commissioner of Transportation has contracted in accordance with section 13b-34 to provide transportation services who operates a vehicle or vessel providing public ferry service or fixed route bus service or performs duties directly related to the operation of such vehicle or vessel, or who, as part of the provision of public rail service, is a train operator, conductor, inspector, signal person or station agent and "security officer" has the same meaning as provided in section 29-152u.(b) Assault of public safety, emergency medical, public transit or health care personnel is a class C felony. If any person who is confined in an institution or facility of the Department of Correction is sentenced to a term of imprisonment for assault of an employee of the Department of Correction under this section, such term shall run consecutively to the term for which the person was serving at the time of the assault.(c) In any prosecution under this section involving assault of a health care employee, as defined in section 19a-490q, it shall be an affirmative defense that the defendant is a person with a disability as described in subdivision (13), (15) or (20) of section 46a-51 and the defendant's conduct was a clear and direct manifestation of the disability, except that for the purposes of this subsection, "mental disability", as defined in subdivision (20) of section 46a-51, does not include any abnormality manifested only by repeated criminal or antisocial conduct.Conn. Gen. Stat. § 53a-167c
(P.A. 73-639, S. 19; P.A. 90-157, S. 2; 90-250, S. 2; P.A. 93-246 , S. 1 ; P.A. 94-62 ; P.A. 98-41 ; P.A. 99-26 , S. 28 ; 99-204 ; P.A. 01-84 , S. 13 , 26 ; P.A. 03-6 , S. 1 ; 03-19 , S. 126 ; P.A. 04-234 , S. 2 ; 04-241 , S. 3 ; 04-257 , S. 120 ; P.A. 05-108 , S. 7 ; 05-180 , S. 6 ; P.A. 06-196 , S. 185 ; P.A. 08-150 , S. 54 ; P.A. 09-191 , S. 2 ; P.A. 10-36 , S. 24 ; P.A. 11-175 , S. 4 ; P.A. 13-111 , S. 1 ; P.A. 15-211 , S. 15 ; P.A. 17-216 , S. 3 .)
Amended by P.A. 23-0046, S. 9 of the Connecticut Acts of the 2023 Regular Session, eff. 7/1/2023.Amended by P.A. 22-0117, S. 14 of the Connecticut Acts of the 2022 Regular Session, eff. 5/27/2022.Amended by P.A. 19-0108, S. 8 of the Connecticut Acts of the 2019 Regular Session, eff. 10/1/2019.Amended by P.A. 17-0216, S. 3 of the Connecticut Acts of the 2017 Regular Session, eff. 10/1/2017.Amended by P.A. 15-0211, S. 15 of the Connecticut Acts of the 2015 Regular Session, eff. 10/1/2015. Cited. 214 C. 195 ; 231 Conn. 545 ; 234 Conn. 78 ; 236 Conn. 31 ; 237 C. 454 ; Id., 633. Cited. 3 Conn.App. 353 ; 10 Conn.App. 486 ; 12 Conn.App. 364 ; 14 Conn.App. 1 0; 27 Conn.App. 103 ; 32 Conn.App. 224 ; 37 Conn.App. 338 ; 40 Conn.App. 601 ; 43 Conn.App. 61 ; Id., 76; 46 Conn.App. 118 . Under Sec. 53a-23 , the illegality of an arrest is not a defense to charges under this section which was intended to require an arrestee to submit to an arrest, even though he believes, and may ultimately establish, that the arrest was without probable cause or was otherwise unlawful; it was not intended to require an arrestee to submit to egregiously unlawful conduct-such as an unprovoked assault-by the police in the course of an arrest, whether the arrest was legal or illegal. 79 Conn.App. 667 . Interfering with an officer is lesser offense included in greater offense of assault of public safety personnel and thus conviction of both offenses for same act constituted double jeopardy violation. 86 CA 607. Cited. 33 Conn.Supp. 4 ; 39 Conn.Supp. 347 . Subsec. (a): Cited. 201 C. 605 ; 205 Conn. 370 ; 228 C. 910 ; 233 Conn. 502 . Judgment of Appellate Court in 37 CA 500 reversed in part to affirm judgment of trial court with respect to charges under section. 237 C. 633 . Trial court improperly prevented defendant from offering evidence re first element of the crime, namely, whether the officer was performing his assigned duties when defendant struck him. 255 C. 581 . In order to sustain conviction under statute, there must be a finding that police officers had been acting in the performance of their duties. 261 Conn. 553 . Cited. 1 Conn.App. 709 ; 9 Conn.App. 169 ; judgment reversed, see 205 Conn. 370 ; 23 Conn.App. 160 ; Id., 315; Id., 447; Id., 663; 28 Conn.App. 469 ; 30 Conn.App. 606 ; 31 Conn.App. 178 ; 33 Conn.App. 509 ; Id., 743; judgment reversed, see 233 Conn. 502 ; 35 CA 431 ; Id., 699; 37 Conn.App. 500 ; Id., 635; 38 Conn.App. 306 ; 39 Conn.App. 333 ; Id., 657; Id., 789; 43 CA 480 ; Id., 578; 44 Conn.App. 26 4. In determining whether an assault has been committed, defendant's act does not have to be wholly or partially successful, nor must the act defeat or delay the performance of a duty in which the officer is then engaged, but instead, defendant must only have intended to prevent the officer from performing his or her duties. 1 12 Conn.App. 32 4. Conviction of both assault of peace officer under Subdiv. (1) and interfering with officer under Sec. 53a-167a(a) constitutes double jeopardy; Subdiv. (1) is not unconstitutionally void for vagueness re defendant's conduct because it provides fair warning that a specific intent to injure officer is not an element of the offense. 119 CA 556. Under facts presented, conviction under Subdiv. (5) and interfering with officer under Sec. 53a-167a does not violate double jeopardy because each crime required proof of different facts. 124 Conn.App. 294 . Subdiv. (1): Conviction of both interfering with a peace officer under Sec. 53a-167a and assault of public safety personnel under this section does not constitute double jeopardy when evidence demonstrates that the two crimes did not stem from the same conduct. 167 Conn.App. 281 ; judgment affirmed, see 328 Conn. 648 . Subsec. (b): Legislature intended to deter all prisoners being held in Connecticut facilities, whether there temporarily or for duration of a sentence, from assaulting employees of those facilities and therefore trial court lacked discretion to impose a sentence concurrent to defendant's federal sentence. 63 CA 386 .
See Sec. 53a-59b re assault of an employee of the Department of Correction in the first degree.