(a) Any person who shall commit an assault or battery, or both, upon a person sixty (60) years of age or older, causing serious bodily injury, and who was, at the time of the assault and battery, responsible for the care and treatment of the victim, shall be deemed to have committed a felony and shall be imprisoned for not less than two (2) years but not more than twenty (20) years, or fined not more than ten thousand dollars ($10,000), or both. Further, if at the time of the assault and battery the person committing the act was employed by a health care facility that either condoned the act or attempted to conceal it, the health care facility shall be fined not exceeding fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000). Every person so convicted shall be ordered to make restitution to the victim of the offense or to perform up to five hundred (500) hours of public community restitution work or attend violence counseling and/or substance abuse counseling, or any combination of them imposed by the sentencing judge. The court may not waive the obligation to make restitution and/or public community restitution work. The restitution and/or public community restitution work shall be in addition to any fine or sentence which may be imposed and not in lieu of the fine or sentence.
(b) "Serious bodily injury" means physical injury that:
(1) Creates a substantial risk of death;
(2) Causes protracted loss or impairment of the function of any bodily part, member or organ; or
(3) Causes serious permanent disfigurement.
History of Section.
P.L. 1988, ch. 442, § 1; P.L. 1991, ch. 324, § 1; P.L. 1997, ch. 119, § 1.