Harassment and Menacing Charges in New York

Is harassment a crime in New York?

Usually not a crime, which surprises almost everyone who is charged with it. Penal Law 240.26, harassment in the second degree, is a violation. A violation is not a crime, does not create a criminal record in the ordinary sense, and carries a maximum of fifteen days.

That single fact reshapes most of these cases. It is also why a harassment violation is the most common landing place for a negotiated disposition on a more serious charge.

What are the harassment and menacing offenses?

Offense	Core conduct	Class
Harassment 2nd, PL 240.26	Physical contact or the threat of it; following; or a course of conduct alarming another and serving no legitimate purpose	Violation
Harassment 1st, PL 240.25	Intentionally and repeatedly harassing by following or a course of conduct placing another in reasonable fear of physical injury	Class B misdemeanor
Aggravated harassment 2nd, PL 240.30	A communicated threat of physical harm; harassing phone calls with no legitimate purpose; bias-motivated physical contact; contact causing physical injury	Class A misdemeanor
Menacing 3rd, PL 120.15	By physical menace, intentionally placing another in fear of death, serious physical injury or physical injury	Class B misdemeanor
Menacing 2nd, PL 120.14	The same by displaying a weapon; or a course of conduct; or menacing 3rd in violation of an order of protection	Class A misdemeanor
Menacing 1st, PL 120.13	Menacing 2nd with a prior menacing 2nd conviction within ten years	Class E felony

The dividing line between harassment and menacing is worth holding onto: harassment is about annoyance, alarm and contact; menacing is about fear of injury. Menacing needs no touching at all.

What is the course of conduct element?

It appears in most of these offenses and it does real work. Under PL 240.26(3), the People must show conduct that alarms or seriously annoys, and that serves no legitimate purpose. Both halves are required.

The second half is the defense. Repeated contact with a legitimate purpose is not harassment, however unwelcome it is. Calls about a shared child, messages about a business dispute, or attempts to recover property have a purpose, and the fact that the recipient finds them upsetting does not remove it.

A single act is also generally not a course of conduct. Subdivisions two and three of 240.26 additionally do not apply to activity regulated by the federal labor statutes, which is a real carve-out for picketing and organizing.

Can you be charged for texts, emails or social media?

Yes, but the statute is narrower than it once was, and that history matters.

In People v Golb, 23 NY3d 455 (2014), the Court of Appeals struck down the old version of PL 240.30(1), which reached communications made “in a manner likely to cause annoyance or alarm.” The Court held that provision unconstitutionally vague and overbroad and vacated three aggravated harassment convictions.

The legislature rewrote it. The current PL 240.30(1) is much tighter, and requires all of the following: a communication by telephone, computer, other electronic means or mail, that threatens physical harm to a person or unlawful harm to their property, made with intent to harass, where the sender knows or reasonably should know it will cause reasonable fear for physical safety or property.

An offensive message is not enough. A rude, insulting or humiliating message, without a threat, does not satisfy the rewritten statute. Prosecutions built on the old theory should be tested against the current text.

Subdivision 2 still reaches repeated telephone calls made with intent to harass or threaten and with no purpose of legitimate communication, whether or not anyone answers.

When does harassment become a hate crime?

PL 240.30(3) makes it a class A misdemeanor to subject someone to physical contact, or threaten to, because of a belief or perception about their race, color, national origin, ancestry, gender, gender identity or expression, religion, religious practice, age, disability or sexual orientation. It applies whether or not the perception is correct, and expressly includes removing a religious clothing article or headdress.

Aggravated harassment in the first degree under PL 240.31 is a class E felony covering bias-motivated damage to religious premises over fifty dollars, a repeat of the bias contact offense, and specific acts: placing a swastika on property without permission, setting a cross on fire in public view, or displaying a noose on property without permission.

There is also a separate provision, PL 240.30(3-a), covering physical contact including spitting on transit workers performing their duties.

Are these family offenses?

Yes, and that changes everything about how the case runs. Harassment and menacing are family offenses under CPL 530.11(1) when committed between members of the same family or household. Three consequences follow:

• Concurrent jurisdiction. The complainant may proceed in criminal court, in Family Court, or in both. See Nassau County Family Court.
• An order of protection is near certain at arraignment, and violating it is a separate and more serious charge. See orders of protection and criminal contempt.
• Arrest may be mandatory. For a misdemeanor family offense the officer must arrest unless the victim requests otherwise, and the officer is forbidden to ask whether the victim wants one.

Note how the offenses feed each other: menacing in the third degree committed in violation of a stay away order becomes menacing in the second degree, a class A misdemeanor, under PL 120.14(3).

What does a harassment case usually end in?

Because harassment in the second degree is only a violation, the realistic outcomes are favorable where there is no record and no injury. An adjournment in contemplation of dismissal leaves no conviction at all and dismisses automatically, though a family offense ACD runs twelve months rather than six.

A plea to the harassment violation itself is the standard resolution of a misdemeanor assault or menacing case, because it is not a crime. It is still a conviction for a non-criminal offense, and it is sealed only in the partial way CPL 160.55 provides.

The exposure to take seriously is the order of protection, not the fifteen days. An order can remove you from your home and your children for the duration of the case, and it outlasts most sentences.

Where are these cases heard in Nassau County?

Harassment and menacing charges are heard at Nassau County District Court, 99 Main Street in Hempstead, or in Glen Cove or Long Beach City Court. Felony aggravated harassment or menacing in the first degree moves to Nassau County Court at 262 Old Country Road in Mineola.

A parallel Family Court proceeding goes to Nassau County Family Court at 101 County Seat Drive in Mineola. The court moved into that complex in June 2025, so older directions online point at the wrong building.

One incident between family or household members can therefore produce a criminal case in Hempstead and a family offense petition in Mineola at the same time, with an order of protection out of each. Which proceeding moves first can determine what the other can still do.

Related: orders of protection, criminal contempt, assault in the third degree, and Nassau County Family Court.