A. Repeated Phone Calls: No person shall knowingly make repeated phone calls to another in any of the following ways:
1. Anonymously.
2. At extremely inconvenient hours.
3. In offensively coarse language.
4. After reasonable request to desist.
B. Legitimate Communication: No person, with purpose to harass another, shall make a telephone call to such other person without purpose of legitimate communication.
C. Harassing Phone Calls: No person shall knowingly make harassing phone calls to another in any of the following ways:
1. Making any comment, request, suggestion or proposal which is obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy or indecent with an intent to offend; or
2. Making a telephone call, whether or not conversation ensues, with intent to abuse, threaten or harass any person at the called number; or
3. Making or causing the telephone of another repeatedly to ring, with intent to harass any person at the called number; or
4. Making repeated telephone calls, during which conversation ensues, solely to harass any person at the called number; or
5. Making a telephone call or knowingly inducing a person to make a telephone call for the purpose of harassing another person who is under thirteen (13) years of age, regardless of whether the person under thirteen (13) years of age consents to the harassment, if the defendant is at least sixteen (16) years of age at the time of the commission of the offense; or
6. Knowingly permitting any telephone under one's control to be used for any of the purposes mentioned herein.
D. Harassment Through Electronic Communications:
1. Definitions:
ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION: Any transfer of signs, signals, writings, images, sounds, data or intelligence of any nature transmitted in whole or in part by a wire, radio, telephone line, cable line, wire, electromagnetic, photoelectric or photo optical system.
FAMILY OR HOUSEHOLD MEMBER: Spouses, former spouses, parents, children, stepchildren and other persons related by blood or by present or prior marriage, persons who share or formerly shared a common dwelling, persons who have or allegedly share a blood relationship through a child, persons who have or have had a dating or engagement relationship, and persons with disabilities and their personal assistants. For purposes of this definition, neither a casual acquaintanceship nor ordinary fraternization between two (2) individuals in business or social contexts shall be deemed to constitute a dating relationship.
2. Prohibited: No person shall knowingly make harassing communications through any electronic communications for any of the following purposes:
a. Making any comment, request, suggestion or proposal which is obscene with an intent to offend;
b. Interrupting, with the intent to harass, the telephone service or the electronic communication service of any person;
c. Transmitting to any person, with the intent to harass and regardless of whether the communication is read in its entirety or at all, any file, document, or other communication which prevents that person from using his or her telephone service or electronic communications device;
d. Transmitting an electronic communication or knowingly inducing a person to transmit an electronic communication for the purpose of harassing another person who is under thirteen (13) years of age, regardless of whether the person under thirteen (13) years of age consents to the harassment, if the defendant is at least sixteen (16) years of age at the time of the commission of the offense;
e. Threatening injury to the person or to the property of the person to whom an electronic communication is directed or to any of his or her family or household members; or
f. Knowingly permitting any electronic communications device to be used for any of the purposes mentioned in this section.
E. Penalty: Any person, persons, firm or corporation convicted of a violation of this section is punishable by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars ($100.00) for a first offense and not less than seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00) for any subsequent offense within one (1) year. The maximum fine shall be seven hundred fifty dollars ($750.00) for each offense. (Ord. 13-49-0, 11-13-2013)