This past session the Legislature also amended the Penal Code to make it a crime for a person to hinder apprehension of a person who is required to register and fails to comply with the registration requirements:
Section 38.05, Penal Code, is amended by amending Subsection (c) and adding Subsection (d) to read as follows:
(c) Except as provided by Subsection (d), an offense under this section is a Class A misdemeanor.
(d) An offense under this section is a felony of the third degree if the person who is harbored, concealed, provided with a means of avoiding arrest or effecting escape, or warned of discovery or apprehension is under arrest for, charged with, or convicted of a felony, including an offense under Section 62.102, Code of Criminal Procedure, or is in custody or detention for, is alleged in a petition to have engaged in, or has been adjudicated as having engaged in delinquent conduct that violates a penal law of the grade of felony, including an offense under Section 62.102, Code of Criminal Procedure, and the person charged under this section knew that the person they harbored, concealed, provided with a means of avoiding arrest or effecting escape, or warned of discovery or apprehension is under arrest for, charged with, or convicted of a felony, or is in custody or detention for, is alleged in a petition to have engaged in, or has been adjudicated as having engaged in delinquent conduct that violates a penal law of the grade of felony.
Does that mean that a parent who allows a child who has not registered to live in her home is harboring a fugitive before the child has ever been charged with a crime? Article 62.102 (a) states that “A person commits an offense if the person is required to register and fails to comply with any requirement of this chapter.” Is the offense committed once the registration date lapses? If so, does this make the hindering apprehension case possible if the parent knows that the child has not registered and yet allows him to continue living there?
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