(1) For purposes of this section, the term “sports official” means any person who serves as a referee, an umpire, or a linesman, and any person who serves in a similar capacity as a sports official who may be known by another title, which sports official is duly registered by or is a member of a local, state, regional, or national organization that is engaged in part in providing education and training to sports officials.

(2) Whenever a person is charged with committing an assault or aggravated assault or a battery or aggravated battery upon any elected official or employee of: a school district; a private school; the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind; a university lab school; a state university or any other entity of the state system of public education, as defined in s. 1000.04; a sports official; an employee or protective investigator of the Department of Children and Families; an employee of a lead community-based provider and its direct service contract providers; or an employee of the Department of Health or its direct service contract providers, when the person committing the offense knows or has reason to know the identity or position or employment of the victim, the offense for which the person is charged shall be reclassified as follows:

(a) In the case of aggravated battery, from a felony of the second degree to a felony of the first degree.

(b) In the case of aggravated assault, from a felony of the third degree to a felony of the second degree.

(c) In the case of battery, from a misdemeanor of the first degree to a felony of the third degree.

(d) In the case of assault, from a misdemeanor of the second degree to a misdemeanor of the first degree.

(3) An assault, aggravated assault, battery, or aggravated battery upon a sports official shall be reclassified pursuant to subsection (2) only if such offense is committed upon the sports official when he or she is actively participating as a sports official in an athletic contest or immediately following such athletic contest.

History.—s. 3, ch. 96-293; s. 293, ch. 99-8; s. 11, ch. 2001-68; s. 1037, ch. 2002-387; s. 19, ch. 2004-41; s. 1, ch. 2004-276; s. 48, ch. 2004-350; s. 299, ch. 2014-19.