Assault and battery; Class 1 misdemeanor against sports official.
Summary
Assault and battery; sports official; penalty. Makes it a Class 1 misdemeanor for a person to commit a battery against another knowing or having reason to know that such individual is a sports official, defined in the bill, for an entity sponsoring an interscholastic or intercollegiate sports event or any person performing services as a sports official for a public entity or a private, nonprofit organization that sponsors an amateur sports event who (i) is engaged in the performance of his duties or (ii) is on the premises of such event prior to engaging in his duties or upon conclusion of his duties. The bill provides that such person, upon conviction, may be prohibited from attending any such sports event operated by the entity or organization that employed such sports official for a period of not less than six months as a term and condition of such sentence.
Bill status
signed
all 5 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2025
Committee Review
Feb 2025
Senate Passage
Mar 2025
House of Delegates Passage
Mar 2025
Signed into Law
Mar 2025
Introduced Jan 7, 2025
Signed Mar 21, 2025
Maddy AI version diff · 4 comparisons
What changed between versions
Courts of Justice Substitute
→
Chaptered
·
3 edits
MINOR
This bill converts a House substitute version of SB 986 into its final chaptered form for the 2025 Virginia session. The substantive legal text of the assault and battery statute remains unchanged; the only modifications are formatting and structural adjustments required to convert the bill from a House substitute draft to an enacted law.
Scope change
No substantive change to the scope or applicability of the law. The bill's content regarding penalties for assault against protected individuals remains identical.
TECHNICAL
Removed House-specific metadata headers including session type, bill number, committee information, and patron details.
Added chapter designation (Chapter 361) and approval date (March 21, 2025) to indicate the bill has been enacted into law.
Reformatted the statutory text from a continuous block to a structured layout with proper indentation and line breaks consistent with enacted Virginia statutes.
Floor votes · Senate Jan 17, 2025 · House of Delegates Feb 19, 2025
How they voted
40–0
Passed
Total votes 40
Jan 17, 2025
D
Democratic21
100% Yea
R
Republican19
100% Yea
Vote distribution
All Yea
All Nay
Mixed
No data
Full legislative history
Actions timeline
Total actions
32
Key actions
9
Committee
5
Mar 21, 2025
Signed into law
Approved by Governor-Chapter 361 (Effective 07/01/25)
executive
Mar 10, 2025
Upper · Passed
Signed by President
upper
Mar 7, 2025
Lower · Passed
Signed by Speaker
lower
Mar 7, 2025
Upper · Passed
Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB986ER)
upper
Feb 19, 2025
Lower · Passed
Passed House with substitute (97-Y 0-N)
lower
Feb 14, 2025
Lower · Passed
Reported from Courts of Justice with substitute (21-Y 0-N)
lower
Feb 5, 2025
Committee
Assigned Courts sub: Criminal
lower
Feb 5, 2025
Committee
Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice
lower
Jan 21, 2025
Upper · Passed
Read third time and passed Senate (40-Y 0-N)
upper
Jan 17, 2025
Upper · Passed
Passed by for the day
upper
Jan 15, 2025
Upper · Passed
Reported from Courts of Justice (15-Y 0-N)
upper
Jan 7, 2025
Committee
Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice
upper
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors
Sponsors
Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Angelia Graves
DDemocratic
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