April 21, 2016, Introduced by Rep. Phelps and referred to the Committee on Judiciary.
A bill to amend 1931 PA 328, entitled
"The Michigan penal code,"
(MCL 750.1 to 750.568) by adding section 491a.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
Sec. 491a. (1) A public employee or officer shall not
directly, or indirectly by instructions to another person,
intentionally alter, conceal, destroy, or otherwise tamper with
data used in preparing an official report for the purpose of
falsifying or misrepresenting the data or misleading a person
relying on the report.
(2) A public employee or officer who violates subsection (1)
is guilty of a felony punishable by imprisonment for not more than
5 years or a fine of not more than $5,000.00, or both.
(3) It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under this
section that the public employee or officer who is asserting the
affirmative defense acted to comply with a directive or other
requirement from his or her superior.
(4) This section does not impair any right created under the
whistleblowers' protection act, 1980 PA 469, MCL 15.361 to 15.369.
(5) As used in this section:
(a) "Official report" means a report prepared in the course of
the public employee's or officer's duties for submission or
distribution to a governmental body for use in decisions regarding
public policy. Official report does not include a research report
prepared primarily for the purpose of contributing to the
scientific community's or the general public's knowledge.
(b) "Public employee or officer" means an employee or officer
of this state, of a city, village, township, or county of this
state, or of a department, board, agency, institution, commission,
authority, division, council, or other public entity of this state
or of a city, village, township, or county in this state, including
an individual whose position results from election or appointment.
Enacting section 1. This amendatory act takes effect 90 days
after the date it is enacted into law.