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UtahH.B. 212025 General SessionHouseWALLET
Criminal Code Recodification and Cross References
Sponsored By: Gwynn, Matthew H.
Signed by Governor
RecodificationCrimesLaw Enforcement and Criminal Justice
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108 provisions identified: 45 benefits, 37 costs, 26 mixed.
Diversion option for some youth offenses
Courts can grant diversion for eligible sexual offenses committed before age 16. Enticing a minor, sexual battery, lewdness, and lewdness involving a child are excluded. The court must find no force or coercion and an age gap of no more than three years. Subject to statutory exceptions, delayed reporting or filing must explain why juvenile court did not handle the case. Diversion must be in the person’s best interest and is not guaranteed.
More felony arrests qualify for bail
County jail officials can set bail up to $5,000 for added third-degree felonies involving family offenses or abortion prohibition. The arrested person cannot be on separate pretrial release, probation, or parole. Missing court must be the main risk, and the person must agree in writing to appear. Police must not have submitted a probable-cause statement to a magistrate. Release is not guaranteed.
Registry removal option for some voyeurism
People convicted of class A misdemeanor recorded or photographed voyeurism can seek registry removal five years after their sentence ends. It must be their only offense requiring registration, with no later convictions except traffic offenses. They must finish ordered treatment and pay all ordered restitution. A court must find that removal is not against the public interest.
Solicited children get services, not delinquency cases
Officers encountering a child engaged in sexual solicitation must refer the child to the Division of Child and Family Services. The referral is for services. The child cannot face delinquency proceedings under this provision.
Children face fewer solicitation case protections
The law removes the express bar on delinquency proceedings against children for prostitution or sexual solicitation. Proceedings are allowed, not required. People with juvenile sexual solicitation adjudications also lose this section’s pathway to ask a court to clear those adjudications.
Some victims lose specific legal protections
The crime-victim rights definition no longer lists sexual battery or lewdness as sexual offenses. Both that definition and Safe at Home exclude enticing a minor, lewdness involving a child, and computer-technician reporting failures. Safe at Home also excludes sexual battery and lewdness. Jail-release protections exclude enticing a minor, lewdness, and lewdness involving a child. Sexual battery remains covered for jail-release protections.
Under-21 tobacco shop visits face penalties
People under 21 cannot enter or stay inside a retail tobacco specialty business unless an exception applies. A first offense is a class C misdemeanor, a second is class B, and later offenses are class A. Entry is allowed with a parent or legal guardian, who cannot allow tobacco, electronic cigarette, or nicotine purchases. Entry is also allowed solely for service work when the business monitors the person and bars purchases or other commercial transactions.
Child-abuse findings block parents' homeschool exemptions
School boards cannot accept a homeschool attendance-exemption affidavit from a parent or guardian convicted of child abuse. The same bar applies after a court makes a substantiated child-abuse finding, and boards cannot grant the exemption on that basis. Covered abuse includes qualifying felony or attempted felony sexual offenses, except Sections 76-5-417 through 76-5-420. Qualifying sexual-exploitation offenses under Title 76, Chapter 5b, Part 2 are included when the victim is under 18.
Businesses face currency reporting penalties
Businesses other than financial institutions must file required federal information after receiving more than $10,000 in domestic or foreign currency. The threshold covers one transaction or related transactions during one business day. Knowingly or intentionally failing to file is an offense, and each failure counts separately. Misdemeanor or felony penalties depend on prior convictions and specified aggravating circumstances.
Protective orders cover different sexual offenses
Sexual exploitation offenses join the acts that can support a sexual violence protective order. The definition excludes enticing a minor, sexual battery, lewdness, and lewdness involving a child. It also excludes a computer technician’s failure to report child sexual abuse material. Covered acts include both completed and attempted offenses.
Required HIV tests after listed convictions
People entering a guilty, no-contest, or guilty-with-a-mental-condition plea, or found guilty of listed offenses, must receive HIV testing. Testing must happen before sentencing. People not tested before sentencing must be tested while confined in county jail or state prison. The person pays unless indigent; local law enforcement or the Department of Corrections pays for indigent people from the General Fund.
Pornography convictions affect landlords and tenants
After a tenant, occupant, or their employee has a covered pornography conviction involving the property, owners or intermediate lessors can void the lease or title. This option starts only after direct appeals end or are abandoned; possession returns 10 days after written notice exercising it. Knowingly allowing specified pornographic uses after the qualifying conviction and appeals is a class A misdemeanor for owners or intermediate lessors. Failing to exercise the option within 10 days of the prosecutor's written notice counts as allowing it; unpaid fines become property liens 30 days after judgment. Tenants or occupants who fail to leave permanently within 10 days after receiving notice exercising the option commit a class A misdemeanor.
Breastfeeding mothers gain clear legal protection
Breastfeeding does not violate this chapter when a woman is somewhere she has a right to be. The protection applies whether or not her breast is covered during or as part of feeding.
Coerced solicitation convictions gain relief pathway
A person who committed sexual solicitation of a child under force, fraud, or coercion can seek postconviction relief. Relief is not automatic. The person must also satisfy the postconviction law’s other requirements and its standard for granting relief.
Firearm safekeeping records get destroyed sooner
Utah law enforcement agencies must destroy firearm safekeeping records immediately when the firearm is returned or disposed of. Agencies no longer have five days afterward. The requirement covers records created under the firearm safekeeping chapter.
Kids gain protection against online information sharing
Adults face a class A misdemeanor for publicly posting an unrelated minor’s identifying information online while consciously disregarding a substantial, unjustifiable risk. The risk must involve the child becoming a victim of an offense against a person, and the child must know about the disclosure. Unrelated means not related by blood, marriage, or adoption. Minor victims who win civil cases can recover resulting damages, reasonable attorney fees, and court costs. The civil remedy excludes electronic communications made for legitimate business purposes.
Owners get deadlines for seized-material review
Owners or possessors of material seized under the covered warrant procedure can challenge its classification as pornographic or harmful to minors. They must file written notice within 10 days after seizure. After the hearing, the court must make a further probable-cause decision within two days. Without probable cause, the material must be returned.
People harmed by tracking can sue
People injured by an unlawfully installed tracking device can sue the person responsible. Heirs can sue if the injured person has died. Courts must stop continued violations and can award proven losses. A finding of a violation entitles the plaintiff to reasonable attorney fees; malicious violations can also bring extra damages.
People trying to leave avoid dispersal charges
The failure-to-disperse offense does not apply to people who try but fail to leave the scene. The exception covers riots, disorderly conduct, and unlawful assemblies.
Privacy victims gain damages and legal fees
People injured by unlawful privacy violations, private-communication interception or disclosure, or identity use in ads can sue. Heirs of deceased victims can also sue. Courts must stop continued violations and award reasonable attorney fees after finding a violation. Plaintiffs can recover proven actual losses, plus possible extra damages for malicious violations.
Some fathers keep adoption notice rights
An unmarried biological father’s adoption notice and consent rights can be denied when a child results from a sexual offense. That rule excludes offenses under Sections 76-5-417 through 76-5-420. It also excludes substantially similar offenses under the law where the child was conceived. Fathers keep rights that this particular sexual-offense rule otherwise removes.
Unaware package couriers gain tobacco protection
Couriers carrying someone else’s package are not treated as providing tobacco, nicotine, electronic cigarette products, or tobacco paraphernalia without reason to know its contents. The protection applies to transporting or delivering the package.
Antitrust witnesses get lawyers and reimbursements
People ordered to give oral testimony in a civil antitrust investigation can have a lawyer advise and represent them. They can object on legal or privilege grounds. Testimony must be recorded under oath, and witnesses can request a free copy. Witnesses also receive district-court witness fees and mileage under civil-case payment rules.
Landlords and tenants lose specific criminal penalties
The law removes a class A misdemeanor for owners or intermediate lessors who willfully allow specified prohibited property use to continue. That penalty applied after a qualifying conviction and notice. It also removes a class A misdemeanor for tenants or occupants staying more than 10 days after written lease-voiding notice.
Educators face narrower sexual-offense discipline grounds
Educators can face professional discipline, including license loss, for committing covered sexual offenses. Offenses under Sections 76-5-417 through 76-5-420 are excluded from this particular discipline ground. The rule applies to educators defined by state law.
Health-access applicants get narrow background-check exception
Certain health and human services applicants seeking direct-access-qualified status get a narrow background-check exception. A conviction under Section 76-5b-206 is excluded from the listed Sexual Exploitation Act offense category. This applies to denial decisions involving convictions within the three years before the check. It covers applicants through Department of Health and Human Services certifications, contracts, or licensees; it does not guarantee approval.
Tobacco businesses gain advertising and giveaway flexibility
The law removes Utah’s smokeless-tobacco health-warning requirement for ads in newspapers, magazines, and periodicals published in the state. Tobacco retailers, manufacturers, and distributors can give a free tobacco product to a customer age 21 or older with a tobacco purchase. The giveaway exception does not cover younger customers or gifts without a qualifying purchase.
Antitrust evidence can require scheduled destruction
A confidentiality agreement or order can require Utah’s attorney general to destroy materials produced in a civil antitrust investigation. The requirement binds the attorney general even when state records-retention rules call for keeping the materials. The agreement or order sets the destruction time; the law does not set one.
Contracted police animals gain criminal protections
Criminal protections for police service dogs also cover animals contracted to assist law enforcement agencies with their duties. The protections address endangerment, injury, death, and interference involving those animals.
Covered conspiracy offense needs three people
This conspiracy offense now requires a person to conspire with at least two other people, rather than two people total. It remains a third-degree felony with a minimum $1,000 fine and at least 60 days of incarceration that cannot be suspended. After a prior conviction under this section, it is a second-degree felony. The repeat penalty includes a minimum $5,000 fine and at least one year of incarceration that cannot be suspended.
Defendants face fewer sexual-offense charge enhancements
Offenses under Sections 76-5-417 through 76-5-420 no longer supply the sexual-offense grounds for threat-of-violence charges or aggravated kidnapping. Other threat grounds remain, including bodily injury, death, substantial property damage, and an immediate show of force. Soliciting an adult to commit the offense under Section 76-5-417 is also excluded from a special first-degree-felony penalty. That special penalty carries at least three years in prison and can last for life; solicitation still requires felony intent strongly supported by the circumstances.
Domestic water protected from sheep washing
Washing or dipping sheep is a class B misdemeanor when it makes a city or town’s domestic-use stream impure or unwholesome. The rule covers washing in the stream and use of a nearby pool or dipping vat that contaminates it.
Educational and treatment films receive exemptions
Films distributed to or shown by listed educational institutions, libraries, churches, and museums are exempt from the applicable film regulation. The showing must have scientific, religious, or educational justification. Department of Corrections showings are also exempt when used solely to assess or treat an offender. That exemption includes department-operated or contracted treatment programs.
Four offenses excluded from gang cases
Four specified sexual-offense sections cannot serve as underlying crimes for Utah’s criminal street gang laws. The exclusion covers Sections 76-5-417 through 76-5-420. It applies when prosecutors evaluate whether an offense qualifies as a gang-related underlying crime.
Governments face tighter firearm rule limits
Utah state and local governments generally cannot ban or require permits for the firearm activities and places covered by this law. Covered activities include owning, buying, selling, transferring, transporting, and keeping firearms, ammunition, and accessories. Government restrictions on public or private property also need state-law authority. Exceptions apply where state law provides otherwise or the Legislature specifically delegates authority.
Identity sharing to cause harassment covered
The identifying-information disclosure offense covers sharing intended to cause electronic harassment when harassment actually results. The actor must expect others to spread or use the information. The harassment definition includes three specified offenses, including unlawful electronic disclosure of a minor’s personal information.
Immigration documents bring limited legal protections
For this immigration chapter, listed Utah, tribal, and government IDs and resident immigrant permits support a presumption of lawful presence. That protection does not apply if an officer reasonably suspects the document is false or belongs to someone else. Beginning on the legally defined program start date, valid program permit holders are excluded from the transporting-or-harboring offense. Covered harboring requires knowing conduct, intent to violate federal immigration law, and knowledge or reckless disregard of unlawful presence. Participation as a sponsor or resident in Utah’s pilot immigrant program does not count as encouraging or inducing unlawful immigration.
Lawful drone work gains privacy exception
Drone operators are exempt from this unlawful privacy violation offense for legitimate commercial or educational flights following applicable federal aviation rules or authorizations. Any privacy-related conduct must be solely incidental to that lawful use. The exception does not cover conduct outside those limits.
Minors gain limited lawful weapon access
Minors can possess dangerous weapons for listed lawful activities, including safety courses, shooting ranges, competitions, hunting, and permitted real-property use. The exceptions also cover target concessions and unloaded travel to or from listed activities. Children under 14 need parent or guardian permission and accompaniment by a parent, guardian, or responsible adult. Those ages 14 through 17 need parent or guardian permission. The weapon cannot be used to commit a crime.
Restricted people gain limited weapon relief
People restricted under dangerous-weapons law can possess archery equipment, including crossbows, for lawful hunting or target shooting. Court conditions for pretrial release or probation, and parole conditions, can still prohibit that equipment. After a court removes a specified mental-health firearm restriction, Utah’s Bureau of Criminal Identification must request federal firearm-check record removal. For relevant state records, the bureau must remove the name or send the court order to the agency responsible.
Some computer conduct avoids access charges
The unlawful computer access offense does not apply when the circumstances also constitute an offense under Section 76-12-205. The exception also covers other offenses listed in Section 76-6-703.7(2)(b). Other applicable criminal charges remain possible.
Some misdemeanor defendants avoid hate-crime enhancements
The hate-crime penalty increase no longer applies to misdemeanors under Sections 76-9-105.5, 76-9-105.6, and 76-9-110 through 76-9-114. The enhancement concerns intent to intimidate or terrorize, or reason to believe the conduct will do so. The listed offenses are excluded from that enhancement.
Some sexual offenses escape sentencing add-ons
Enticing a minor, lewdness, and child lewdness no longer count toward habitual violent offender status. Those offenses, plus sexual battery, are excluded from the one-level increase for knowingly having HIV, AIDS, hepatitis B, or hepatitis C. First-degree felonies remain outside that increase. Prior felony enticing convictions no longer trigger the extra five-year maximum per qualifying prior conviction; lewdness offenses also leave that rule. Attempted enticing and conspiracy to entice are excluded from special penalties carrying at least three years and potentially life.
Stronger privacy protections in changing rooms
People in changing rooms have a reasonable expectation of privacy under voyeurism and recorded or photographed voyeurism laws. Government entities running public facilities must contact police about privacy-space complaints involving recorded voyeurism or sharing voyeurism images. The reporting duty remains subject to the exception in Section 53G-8-211.
Tobacco violations face narrower misdemeanor rule
The tobacco penalty rule makes violations of Sections 59-14-501, 59-14-502, 59-14-504, and 59-14-509 class B misdemeanors. It no longer applies across the entire statutory part. Violations outside those four sections are not covered by this particular penalty rule.
Valuable material gains limited display exemption
Material with serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for minors is excluded from the indecent public display offense. The material must be judged as a whole. The law says descriptions or depictions of illicit sex or sexual immorality have no serious value for minors.
Victim safety interviews allow camera pauses
Officers can pause body cameras during an evidence-based lethality assessment with domestic violence or qualifying sexual-offense victims. The victim or officer must believe the pause encourages complete, accurate information or protects the victim’s safety or identity. The officer must restart recording as soon as reasonably possible after the assessment. Sexual offenses under Sections 76-5-417 through 76-5-420 are excluded.
Voyeurism brings higher privacy-space loitering penalties
Knowingly or intentionally remaining unlawfully in a privacy space generally carries a class B misdemeanor charge. It is a class A misdemeanor when combined with recorded or photographed voyeurism, or distribution of voyeuristic images. Other listed grounds for class A treatment remain in place.
Consent required for minors’ tattoos and piercings
Tattooing or piercing a minor, or offering either service, requires parent or guardian consent when done for pay or business. A violation is a class B misdemeanor, and the business owner or operator faces a $1,000 civil penalty per violation. An actor without actual knowledge of the minor’s age has a limited defense. Before providing the service, the actor must review, copy, and retain apparently valid government photo identification showing an age of at least 18.
Unauthorized identity ads face matching corrections
A person convicted of using someone’s identity in an ad without consent can be ordered to issue an apology or retraction. The correction must be similar in size and placement to the original ad. The order must come within 30 days of conviction unless the victim waives the correction.
Online providers gain conditional criminal liability protection
Qualifying online services and hosting companies are exempt from specified offenses when harmful-material distribution is incidental to their normal services. Covered services include transmission, routing, connections, storage, and caching. Providers must not intentionally help distribute the material. They also must not knowingly accept an above-normal fee from the distributor specifically for allowing the distribution.
Older public entities gain antitrust exemption
Certain project, electric, and energy services entities share Utah’s antitrust exemption for political subdivisions. They must have formed under the Interlocal Cooperation Act before January 1, 1981. Their covered activities must be authorized or directed by state law.
Corporate record fraud offense becomes narrower
This corporate or association offense now targets insiders, and their helpers, who knowingly receive or hold entity property for personal benefit. Property received to satisfy a valid claim is excluded. The person must intentionally leave a full, truthful entry out of the books with intent to defraud. The offense replaces a broader list of conduct; this change narrows this particular offense.
Littering brings fines and possible cleanup
Discarding litter, or allowing it to be discarded, on land or waterways without the owner’s or controller’s permission is unlawful. A violation is a class C misdemeanor with a minimum $100 fine per violation. A court can also order at least four hours of cleanup in a safe area it selects.
Riot victims lose specific restitution mandate
The law removes a specific requirement to order restitution for convictions under former Subsection 76-9-101(4), a riot provision. This removes that subsection’s repayment mandate. It does not establish that restitution available under other law is barred.
Victim reparations use narrower sexual-assault definition
Utah’s crime victim reparations rules exclude four types of conduct from the sexual-assault definition. They are enticing a minor, sexual battery, lewdness, and lewdness involving a child. This changes whether those cases are treated as sexual assault for reparations purposes.
Insurance rules narrow covered abuse definitions
Applicable insurance rules define child abuse through specified assault-related and sexual offenses committed or attempted against a child. That definition excludes enticing a minor. The domestic-violence definition excludes enticing a minor, sexual battery, lewdness, and lewdness involving a child. These definitions affect insurance rights or claims that rely on them, but do not set a particular payment or claim outcome.
Medical-care rules narrow sexual assault definition
Medical-care rules in Utah Code Part 26B-4 exclude four offenses from the definition of sexual assault. They are enticing a minor, sexual battery, lewdness, and lewdness involving a child, under Sections 76-5-417 through 76-5-420. The exclusions affect how victim status is determined for care covered by that part. The provision does not state a separate payment amount.
Drug testers must report suspect urine
Specimen collectors reporting drug or alcohol test results to employers must report information indicating adulterated or synthetic urine was submitted. They must notify both the employer and Utah’s Department of Public Safety. This rule does not impose a new reporting duty on the person who submitted the specimen.
Public hiring protections exclude serious convictions
Specified conviction-related hiring protections do not cover violent felonies or qualifying sexual-offense felonies. This rule covers mental-health-professional applicants to public employers and people working under public-employer contracts. The sexual-offense category excludes felonies under Sections 76-5-417, 76-5-419, and 76-5-420. It includes qualifying felonies under Title 76, Chapter 5b.
Workers face narrower confidentiality-clause protections
Utah's sexual-misconduct confidentiality rules exclude conduct in Sections 76-5-417 through 76-5-420 from the definition of sexual assault. Those sections concern enticing a minor, sexual battery, lewdness, and lewdness involving a child. Protections tied to sexual-assault allegations therefore do not cover that conduct as sexual assault.
Adults aiding minors face harsher penalties
Adults 18 or older commit a third-degree felony by knowingly encouraging or intentionally helping minors in specified conduct involving harmful material. The offense requires the minor's intentional conduct and the stated knowledge or age-check conditions. The mandatory fine is at least $5,000 plus $10 per article exhibited, up from $1,000 plus $10 per article. Required incarceration rises from at least 14 days to at least one year, which cannot be suspended.
Cities must designate gang-loitering prohibition areas
Cities and counties must designate public places where gang loitering is prohibited because gangs control, intimidate, or conceal illegal activity. They must consult knowledgeable people as appropriate and set procedures to review and update the areas. Gang loitering means staying where a reasonable person would see the behavior as helping those gang activities. Public places include locations open to the public or a substantial group, including listed streets, venues, parking, common areas, and interiors. The designations establish where the applicable gang-loitering enforcement and criminal penalties apply.
Dangerous animal owners face criminal liability
Owners face criminal liability when they know an animal’s dangerous tendencies and willfully let it roam or keep it without ordinary care. The animal must injure or kill another animal or a person who took reasonable precautions. The offense is generally a class B misdemeanor. It becomes a third-degree felony if the animal causes a human death.
Disabling minors’ filters brings criminal penalties
Adults other than a minor’s parent or guardian cannot intentionally disable a required device filter to send pornography to that minor. The device must be in the minor’s possession. A first violation is a class A misdemeanor with a fine up to $2,500. Another violation after a conviction is a third-degree felony with a fine up to $5,000.
Fight promoters face broader criminal liability
Publicizing, promoting, or conducting a qualifying live fighting match is a class A misdemeanor, alongside participating. The match must charge admission and allow professional contestants to use a combination of specified combat techniques. It must also lack listed safeguards involving formal judging, time limits, or bans on specified conduct.
Gang enforcement carries weapon and dispersal penalties
For five years after a qualifying gang-enhanced conviction, possessing a dangerous weapon, ammunition, or firearm facsimile is a class A misdemeanor. In designated gang-loitering areas, people must obey an officer’s order to disperse beyond sight and hearing of the location. Failing to leave or returning within eight hours is a class B misdemeanor. A repeat dispersal violation carries at least a $100 fine unless the court records mitigating circumstances supporting a lower punishment.
Gun dealers face unlawful transfer felonies
Firearm dealers face a third-degree felony for willfully and intentionally making sales or transfers that violate the specified Utah firearm laws. The rule targets dealers’ unlawful sales and transfers, not every firearm transaction.
Laundering criminal proceeds brings felony exposure
Specified dealings with property known to be unlawful proceeds are second-degree felonies. Covered transactions include those intended to promote unlawful activity, hide the property, or avoid transaction-reporting requirements. Each act moving more than $10,000 in funds counts as a separate violation.
Litter rules bring fines and cleanup
Advertising distributors must take reasonable steps to prevent litter, and people removing wrecked vehicles must remove dangerous debris left behind. Construction and demolition site managers must take reasonable steps to prevent litter buildup. Operators of listed places must provide enough litter bins, including parks, campgrounds, trailer parks, drive-ins, gas stations, shopping centers, specified parking lots, marinas, piers, beaches, and bathing areas. Violations are class C misdemeanors carrying a minimum $100 fine per violation. Courts can also order at least four hours of cleanup in a safe, court-designated area.
Material-display defendants face fewer legal defenses
The law removes a specific defense under Sections 76-10-1206, 76-10-1227, and 76-10-1228. The defense covered displays using qualifying opaque wrappers, blinder racks, or areas physically closed to minors. County attorneys, or district attorneys in prosecution districts, can prosecute chapter violations, including felonies. City attorneys can also prosecute them in first- or second-class cities despite usual limits on their powers.
Minors lose a specific disclosure remedy
The law repeals a specific crime involving an adult publicly sharing an unrelated minor’s identifying information. That former offense required conscious disregard of a substantial, unjustifiable risk of a specified crime against the minor. It also required the minor to know about the disclosure. The law removes the linked civil claim for minor victims, including its express recovery of damages, reasonable attorney fees, and court costs.
Nitrous oxide misuse carries misdemeanor penalties
Specified misuse of nitrous oxide, including substances containing it, is a class A misdemeanor. Covered conduct includes possession for intoxicating use and knowingly or intentionally being under its influence. Providing it while knowing another person intends prohibited use is also covered. Medical, surgical, and dental care exceptions apply.
Offers to pay expand solicitation exposure
Offering or agreeing to pay a fee, or its equivalent, for sexual activity can count as patronizing a prostituted individual. Payment does not need to be completed. Sexual solicitation provisions for adults also expressly include offers to pay. The arranged-meeting form requires arranging and attending a meeting to be hired for sexual activity in exchange for payment.
Private-place intoxication can bring criminal charges
Public intoxication can now include conduct in a private place where the person could unreasonably disturb others. The person must be intoxicated enough to possibly endanger themselves or someone else. The rule covers alcohol, controlled substances, and substances releasing toxic vapors. The offense is a class C misdemeanor.
Receiving criminal proceeds brings added penalties
Knowingly accepting or receiving property represented as criminal proceeds is a separate third-degree felony. Each act moving more than $10,000 in funds counts as a separate violation. People convicted of accepting unlawful proceeds as a second-degree felony must register with the Utah Attorney General's Office.
School sexual material rules expand
The school-property offense includes material depicting or describing illicit sex or sexual immorality, or nude or partly nude figures. It covers willfully or knowingly creating, viewing, or accessing that material on school property. It applies only when specified distribution, aiding, inducing acceptance, or indecent-display offenses do not apply. The penalty is a class A misdemeanor at age 18 or older, and class B for younger people. School and law enforcement staff have a limited exception for investigation or enforcement.
Suspected computer crimes require reporting
People with reason to believe a listed computer-related offense is happening or has happened must report it. Reports go to the specified prosecutor or a state or local law enforcement agency. The listed offenses are Sections 76-6-703, 76-6-703.3, 76-6-703.5, 76-6-703.7, and 76-12-205. The duty does not apply when a statutory or common-law privilege prohibits reporting.
Unlawful activity brings wider asset risks
Authorities can seek forfeiture of gambling bets, proceeds, debts, and fringe gaming devices tied to unlawful gambling. Property must be reasonably identifiable as used or obtained in violation of state gambling law or a local ordinance. Permitting gambling, online gambling, and helping minors distribute pornography or harmful material join the unlawful-activity offense list. Pattern cases require at least three related, non-isolated episodes showing continuing unlawful conduct.
Voyeurism brings registry duties and felonies
Felony or class A misdemeanor convictions for recorded voyeurism or sharing voyeurism images fall within Utah’s sex-offender registry category. Lewdness becomes a third-degree felony when recorded voyeurism or sharing voyeurism images happens at the same time. This felony rule also applies to lewdness involving a child.
Flavored electronic cigarette sales are banned
People cannot sell, offer, give, distribute, or furnish flavored electronic cigarette products to anyone, regardless of age. A first violation is a class C misdemeanor. Later violations are class B misdemeanors.
Anticompetitive pricing brings fines for businesses
Commodity suppliers face $500 to $4,000 fines per offense for intentional local price differences aimed at destroying or blocking competition. Distance and freight differences must first be accounted for. Covered dairy buyers face the same fine range and a class B misdemeanor for monopoly-driven or competitor-destroying local purchase prices. Dairy comparisons account for grade, quality, and actual transport costs. After a court finds a corporate commodity-pricing violation, charter cancellation or license revocation is required; an injunction is also allowed.
Market-price fraud carries fines per offense
Willfully using false statements, false rumors, or other fraudulent means to affect property market prices is a class B misdemeanor. The fine is $500 to $4,000 for each offense.
Company insiders face financial misconduct felonies
Company or association directors, officers, agents, members, and people helping them face third-degree felonies for covered financial misconduct. This includes stealing or willfully misusing entity money or credit, or circulating entity notes without directors' approval. It also covers unauthorized deposit certificates, payment orders, bills of exchange, acceptances, and transfers of listed financial or legal instruments. False records and fake or illegal stock are covered when intended to injure, defraud, or deceive specified officers or examiners.
Association directors face broader knowledge presumption
Directors of joint stock associations now face the same knowledge presumption as corporate directors. For covered offenses, the law treats them as knowing enough about the entity’s affairs to assess their acts or omissions.
Handgun owners face identification mark rules
Utah’s Department of Public Safety can assign an identifying mark, on request, to a handgun with missing or erased identification. Stamping a number not assigned by the department is a class A misdemeanor, with exceptions for specified owner restoration and routine manufacturer marking. Changing or removing a maker name, model, number, or other identifying mark requires the department’s prior written permission. Unauthorized changes are a class A misdemeanor. Both criminal restrictions exclude antique firearms.
Libelous comments lose some legal protection
Some communications between interested people receive a legal privilege. The privilege also covers relationships giving reasonable grounds to believe the speaker had an innocent motive. Libelous remarks or comments connected to an otherwise protected communication do not receive that protection.
Parents face revised custody and notice rules
Beginning May 7, 2025, custody and parent-time courts must consider a parent’s intentional exposure of a child to pornography or harmful material. Knowingly living with, or giving a child access to, someone convicted of a qualifying sexual offense against a minor can establish changed circumstances for custody review. Convictions under Sections 76-5-417, 76-5-418, and 76-5-419 do not qualify for that rule. Those same convictions no longer trigger the parent’s immediate notice duty to the other parent. These custody factors do not automatically decide the outcome.
Breast-exposure lewdness rule becomes gender-specific
The breast-exposure lewdness rule applies only when the actor is female. It covers exposure of the female breast below the top of the areola. The act must occur in public or where the actor should know it is likely to offend or alarm someone 14 or older.
Business obstruction has separate crime levels
Unlawfully entering or staying at a business to interfere with its people or operations is a class A misdemeanor. The law removes a separate felony version and establishes aggravated commercial obstruction as a second-degree felony. The aggravated crime also requires intent to take or alter listed business property or information, damage property, assault someone, or commit another felony. The aggravated offense excludes conduct protected by the named federal labor laws and the exercise of specified constitutional rights.
Child abuse definition adds voyeurism
The child sexual abuse definition includes recorded or photographed voyeurism and sharing images obtained through voyeurism. It excludes unlawful sexual activity with a minor when the alleged offender is also a minor. It also excludes enticing a minor. These changes affect laws that use this definition.
Crime patterns bring fines and restitution
Covered pattern-of-unlawful-activity offenses are second-degree felonies; a pattern means at least three related unlawful acts within five years. Instead of another authorized fine, courts can impose up to twice the net proceeds: property gained minus direct acquisition costs. After conviction, courts can order restitution, surrender of business interests or control, or business closure or reorganization. Courts can also restrict future activities or investments, subject to the Utah and U.S. Constitutions. Courts can require repayment of investigation, prosecution, and forfeiture costs to the state or county that brought the case.
Domestic violence rules add and exclude offenses
When one cohabitant acts against another, domestic violence includes recorded or photographed voyeurism and sharing images obtained through voyeurism. It also includes sexual exploitation and aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor. The law removes sexual battery from the listed offenses. It expressly excludes enticing a minor, lewdness, and lewdness involving a child.
Electronic records orders cover different offenses
The electronic-records order process includes aggravated sexual extortion of a child in its sexual-offense-against-a-minor definition. Sexual battery, lewdness, and lewdness involving a child are excluded. The process also covers stalking and child kidnapping investigations. Police need reasonable suspicion that the service was used in the offense and specific facts showing the records’ relevance and importance. Requests require prosecutor review and authorization, followed by submission to a magistrate.
Explosive possession penalties include work exceptions
Intentional, knowing, or reckless possession of an explosive, chemical, or incendiary part is a third-degree felony outside weapons-of-mass-destruction offenses. Exceptions cover specified official public safety and military duties, permit or license holders, employees, and lawful business operations. Separate prohibitions involving weapons of mass destruction or hoax weapons exclude qualifying military, government, and private-entity work. That work must be authorized or licensed, within employment duties, and compliant with federal and state law.
Explosives convictions count differently for sentencing
The law changes which explosives offenses count toward habitual violent offender status. It removes older listed offenses for possessing, using, or removing explosive, chemical, or incendiary devices. It includes specified unlawful conduct involving those devices or their parts.
False medal claims face revised penalties
Intentional false claims of receiving a service medal and specified deceptive medal transactions are infractions. The rule also covers unauthorized use of military-related organizations’ medals or identifying features with the required deceptive intent. Wearing a service medal is no longer listed among prohibited medal transactions. Federal authorization is an exception only for conduct under Subsection (2)(b), not the entire provision.
Farms gain protection from nuisance claims
An unlawful act or failure to act can be a public nuisance when it harms three or more people. The definition also covers interference with or danger to specified public routes and waters. Normal agricultural and critical infrastructure materials operations following sound practices are presumed not to be public nuisances. Following applicable laws and regulations is presumed to meet the sound-practices standard.
Fewer misconduct claims can dissolve nonprofits
Conduct under Sections 76-5-417 or 76-5-420 cannot support a misconduct claim used to dissolve a nonprofit. Courts must find a covered nonprofit liable for the misconduct claim before dissolving it. Bona fide churches and religious organizations are outside this dissolution provision.
More people liable for dangerous child abandonment
The unattended-child vehicle offense applies to any actor, not only someone responsible for the child. It is a class C misdemeanor when a child under nine lacks supervision by someone at least nine. The child must face heat illness, cold illness, or dehydration risk inside an enclosed vehicle compartment. The vehicle must be on public property or private property open to the public. The actor must act intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, or with criminal negligence.
Parents face targeted weapon safety duties
The firearm-access offense is limited to parents or legal guardians who knowingly or intentionally provide or allow firearm possession. It applies when their child or ward has a specified violent-felony conviction or qualifying juvenile adjudication. A first offense is a class A misdemeanor; later offenses are third-degree felonies. Parents and guardians also commit a class B misdemeanor if they know their child or ward unlawfully has a deadly weapon and fail to make reasonable efforts to remove it. That removal rule now uses “deadly weapon” instead of “dangerous weapon.”
Police interception authority covers revised offenses
Judges can authorize communications interception for a revised list of offenses when it may provide or has provided evidence. The list includes unlawful explosive, chemical, or incendiary device conduct under Section 76-15-210 and assault with intent to commit bus hijacking. It removes a separate listing for possession, use, or removal of such devices and parts. Judges must still follow the required procedures.
Unlawful-pattern cases face limits on remedies
Employers and other principals remain liable for actual damages caused by agents acting within their employment or apparent authority. Double damages require board or senior-manager involvement in the unlawful pattern, including authorization, direction, participation, or reckless tolerance. The senior manager must act within employment duties. In cases based on specified offenses, courts also cannot issue orders that improperly restrict protected speech before it occurs.
Weapon offenders must repay response costs
People convicted of covered weapons-of-mass-destruction or hoax-weapon offenses must repay all response expenses and losses. Repayment goes to affected governments, businesses, organizations, individuals, and other responders. A court can decline repayment only by explaining its reasons on the record.
Workplace computer reports go to police
Employers can require computer technicians to report findings to a designated employee. That employee must immediately forward the report to state or local police. Sending it to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Cyber Tip Line is no longer an alternative.
Smokeless tobacco ads require health warnings
Smokeless tobacco ads in Utah-published newspapers, magazines, and periodicals must carry this warning: “Use of smokeless tobacco may cause oral cancer and other mouth disorders and is addictive.” The warning must be easy to see and read, with contrasting type, layout, and color. The rule covers tobacco intended for the mouth or nasal passage.
Local tobacco zoning authority stays intact
Cities and counties retain authority to adopt and enforce land use rules affecting tobacco products and electronic cigarettes. The law’s rule overriding covered local tobacco regulations does not apply to those land use rules. It continues to apply to other local regulations covered by the state rule.
Schools change sexual misconduct offense lists
Public-school law defines sexual crime or misconduct to include the referenced sexual-offense and sexual-exploitation chapters, plus incest. It excludes enticing a minor, lewdness involving a child, and a computer technician's failure to report child sexual abuse material. The law also removes the prior listings for lewdness under Section 76-9-702 and sexual battery under Section 76-9-702.1. These changes determine which conduct falls within this school-law definition.
Sponsors & Cosponsors
Sponsor
Gwynn, Matthew H.
Affiliation unavailable
Cosponsors
Keith Grover
Republican • Senate
Roll Call Votes
House vote • 3/6/2025
House/ circled
Yes: 0 • No: 0
House vote • 3/6/2025
House/ concurs with Senate amendment
Yes: 74 • No: 0
House vote • 3/6/2025
House/ uncircled
Yes: 0 • No: 0
Senate vote • 3/5/2025
Senate/ circled
Yes: 0 • No: 0
Senate vote • 3/5/2025
Senate/ passed 2nd & 3rd readings/ suspension
Yes: 29 • No: 0
Senate vote • 3/5/2025
Senate/ substituted
Yes: 0 • No: 0
Senate vote • 3/5/2025
Senate/ uncircled
Yes: 0 • No: 0
Senate vote • 2/5/2025
Senate/ circled
Yes: 0 • No: 0
Senate vote • 2/5/2025
Senate/ uncircled
Yes: 0 • No: 0
Senate vote • 2/5/2025
Senate/ passed 2nd reading
Yes: 27 • No: 0
Senate vote • 1/28/2025
Senate Comm - Favorable Recommendation
Yes: 6 • No: 0
House vote • 1/21/2025
House/ substituted
Yes: 0 • No: 0
House vote • 1/21/2025
House/ passed 3rd reading
Yes: 74 • No: 0
House vote • Unknown
House/ uncircled
Yes: 0 • No: 0
House vote • Unknown
House/ substituted
Yes: 0 • No: 0
Senate vote • Unknown
Senate/ substituted
Yes: 0 • No: 0
Senate vote • Unknown
Senate/ uncircled
Yes: 0 • No: 0
Senate vote • Unknown
Senate/ circled
Yes: 0 • No: 0
House vote • Unknown
House/ circled
Yes: 0 • No: 0
Senate vote • Unknown
Senate/ uncircled
Yes: 0 • No: 0
Senate vote • Unknown
Senate/ circled
Yes: 0 • No: 0
Actions Timeline
Governor Signed
3/25/2025House/ to Governor
3/17/2025HouseHouse/ received enrolled bill from Printing
3/17/2025HouseHouse/ enrolled bill to Printing
3/13/2025HouseEnrolled Bill Returned to House or Senate
3/13/2025Draft of Enrolled Bill Prepared
3/6/2025Bill Received from House for Enrolling
3/6/2025House/ signed by Speaker/ sent for enrolling
3/6/2025HouseHouse/ received from Senate
3/6/2025HouseSenate/ to House
3/6/2025SenateSenate/ signed by President/ returned to House
3/6/2025SenateSenate/ received from House
3/6/2025SenateHouse/ to Senate
3/6/2025HouseHouse/ concurs with Senate amendment
3/6/2025HouseHouse/ uncircled
3/6/2025HouseHouse/ circled
3/6/2025HouseHouse/ placed on Concurrence Calendar
3/5/2025HouseHouse/ received from Senate
3/5/2025HouseSenate/ to House with amendments
3/5/2025SenateSenate/ passed 2nd & 3rd readings/ suspension
3/5/2025SenateSenate/ substituted
3/5/2025SenateSenate/ uncircled
3/5/2025SenateSenate/ circled
3/5/2025SenateSenate/ placed on 2nd Reading Calendar
3/5/2025SenateSenate/ placed on 3rd Reading Calendar table
2/5/2025Senate
Bill Text
Enrolled
3/13/2025
Substitute #2
3/3/2025
Substitute #1
1/20/2025
Introduced
12/17/2024