(a) A person commits the crime of tampering with public records in the second degree if the person
(1) knowingly makes a false entry in or falsely alters a public record;
(2) knowingly destroys, mutilates, suppresses, conceals, removes, or otherwise impairs the verity, legibility, or availability of a public record, knowing that the person lacks the authority to do so; or
(3) certifies a public record setting out a claim against a government agency, or the property of a government agency, with reckless disregard of whether the claim is lawful, or that payment of the claim is not authorized in the budget of the government agency.
(b) In this section,
(1) “certifies” means attesting to the existence, truth, or accuracy of facts, or that one holds an opinion, stated in a public record; the term includes the responsibilities for state officials set out in AS 37.10.030;
(2) “falsely alters” has the meaning ascribed to it in AS 11.46.580; and
(3) “makes a false entry” means to change or create a public record, whether complete or incomplete, by means of erasure, obliteration, deletion, insertion of new matter, transposition of matter, or by any other means, so that the record so changed or created states or implies a fact that the maker knows is not true, or states or implies an opinion that the maker does not hold.
(c) Tampering with public records in the second degree is a class A misdemeanor.