Criminal tampering in the first degree · as in force on May 31, 2026
§ 145.20 Criminal tampering in the first degree.
A person is guilty of criminal tampering in the first degree when, with intent to cause a substantial interruption or impairment of a service rendered to the public, and having no right to do so nor any reasonable ground to believe that he or she has such right, he or she damages or tampers with property of a gas, electric, sewer, steam or water-works corporation, telephone or telegraph corporation, common carrier, nuclear powered electric generating facility, or public utility operated by a municipality or district, and thereby causes such substantial interruption or impairment of service.
Criminal tampering in the first degree is a class D felony.
A person commits first-degree criminal tampering by damaging or tampering with property of a gas, electric, sewer, steam, or water-works corporation, telephone or telegraph corporation, common carrier, nuclear-powered electric generating facility, or municipal or district public utility, without a right to do so or any reasonable ground to believe there is one, intending to substantially interrupt or impair a service rendered to the public, and thereby actually causing that substantial interruption or impairment. ★ It is a class D felony.
Marked in the text: penalties, time limits, sums of money. Editorial emphasis added by this edition; it does not appear in the statute as enacted.
This provision appears in Volume 4 — The Court Clerk: Penal Law; Volume 1 — The Court Officer in Plain English; Volume 3 — The Court Officer: Penal Law; Volume 3 — Your Career: Penal Law in Plain English.