Disruption or disturbance of a religious service, funeral, burial or memorial service · as in force on May 31, 2026
§ 240.21 Disruption or disturbance of a religious service, funeral,
burial or memorial service.
A person is guilty of disruption or disturbance of a religious service, funeral, burial or memorial service when he or she makes unreasonable noise or disturbance while at a lawfully assembled religious service, funeral, burial or memorial service, or within three hundred feet thereof, with intent to cause annoyance or alarm or recklessly creating a risk thereof.
Disruption or disturbance of a religious service, funeral, burial or memorial service is a class A misdemeanor.
Making unreasonable noise or disturbance at or within 300 feet of a lawfully assembled religious service, funeral, burial, or memorial service, intending annoyance or alarm or recklessly risking it, is a class A misdemeanor. ★
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.