Sec. 11.41.520. Extortion.

437 words·~2 min read·/ak/title-11/chapter-41/11-41-520

A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.

(a)A person commits the crime of extortion if the person obtains the property of another by threatening or suggesting that either that person or another may

(1)inflict physical injury on anyone, except under circumstances constituting robbery in any degree, or commit any other crime;

(2)accuse anyone of a crime;

(3)expose confidential information or a secret, whether true or false, tending to subject a person to hatred, contempt, or ridicule or to impair the person's credit or business repute;

(4)take or withhold action as a public servant or cause a public servant to take or withhold action;

(5)bring about or continue a strike, boycott, or other collective unofficial action, if the property is not demanded or received for the benefit of the group in whose interest the person making the threat or suggestion purports to act;

(6)testify or provide information or withhold testimony or information with respect to a person's legal claim or defense; or

(7)inflict any other harm which would not benefit the person making the threat or suggestion.

(b)A threat or suggestion to perform any of the acts described in

(a)of this section includes an offer to protect another from any harmful act when the offeror has no apparent means to provide the protection or when the price asked for rendering the protection service is grossly disproportionate to its cost to the offeror.

(c)It is a defense to a prosecution based on (a)(2), (3), or

(4)of this section that the property obtained by threat of accusation, exposure, lawsuit, or other invocation of official action was honestly claimed as restitution or indemnification for harm done in the circumstances to which the accusation, exposure, lawsuit, or other official action relates, or as compensation for property or lawful services.

(d)In this section, “property of another” means property in which a person has an interest that the defendant is not privileged to infringe, whether or not the defendant also has an interest in the property and whether or not the person from whom the property was obtained or withheld also obtained the property unlawfully. “Property of another” does not include property in the possession of the defendant in which another has only a security interest, even if legal title is in the secured party under a conditional sales contract or other security agreement; in the absence of a specific agreement to the contrary, the holder of a security interest in property is not privileged to infringe the debtor's right of possession without the consent of the debtor.

(e)Extortion is a class B felony.