NRS § 201.255 – “Obscene, Threatening or Annoying Telephone Calls” – Nevada Law

Consensual phone sex is not a crime. But if one person calls another with unsolicited sex talk – whether by voice or video such as FaceTime – then that person could face charges for an obscene phone call.

Threatening phone calls

It is a criminal offense in Nevada willfully to make a telephone call and then threaten to either:

• injure the call recipient;
• damage the call recipient’s property;
• injure a member of the call recipient’s family; or
• damage property belonging to any family member of the call recipient

Examples could be threatening to break the recipient’s bones, kill the recipient’s children, or to burn down their house. But vague threats such as “You’ll be sorry if you don’t do as I say” would probably fall short of illegal phone speech.²

Note that making threatening phone calls intending to extort money from the recipient would instead be prosecuted as blackmail (NRS 205.320). Expectedly, this carries more serious penalties than merely making a threatening phone call without intent to profit.

Annoying phone calls

Nevada law does not actually prohibit annoying phone calls. Instead, it prohibits making a phone call with the intent to annoy the recipient. A defendant can still be convicted even if the recipient never answers the phone, has no conversation, or does not feel annoyed. All that matters is the defendant’s intent.³

2. Can I go to jail?

Potentially. However, judges are more likely to impose just a fine for a first-time offense. The maximum penalties for making an unlawful phone call are:

• 6 months in jail, and/or
• $1,000 in fines

Note that prosecutors may press charges in Nevada as long as one of the parties to the telephone call was within the state when the call was made. Therefore, a caller who has never been to Nevada could still face Nevada charges for making an illegal call to someone in Nevada.⁴

3. How can I defend against the charges?

Four potential defenses to Nevada charges of making an obscene, threatening, or annoying phone call include the following:

1. The phone call was not willful. An example is if the defendant unknowingly pocket-dialed the accuser while having sex or watching a pornographic film.
2. The defendant had no intent to annoy. It makes no difference whether the accuser was annoyed by the defendant’s call. As long as the defendant had no “intent to annoy”, the charge should not stand.
3. The call was perfectly legal. What qualifies as threatening or obscene is subjective. Merely upset or frustrated speech breaks no laws.  As long as prosecutors cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the content of the call was illegal, the case should be dropped.
4. The defendant was falsely accused. Perhaps the accuser made up the allegations out of revenge, anger, or to gain the upper hand in an ongoing legal matter. In these cases, the defense attorney would search for evidence that demonstrates the accuser’s lack of trustworthiness and motivations to lie.

4. Can defendants get deported?

It is unlikely that making an unlawful phone call will result in non-citizen defendants getting deported. But if the call involved making serious threats, prosecutors may try to argue that it qualifies as a crime involving moral turpitude – which is deportable.⁵ Any immigrant charged with a crime should consult with experienced counsel in an effort to get the charge dismissed.

5. Can the record be sealed?

Yes. Nevada convictions for making an obscene, threatening, or annoying phone call can be sealed one (1) year after the case ends. But if the charge gets dismissed, then there is no waiting period before the defendant can pursue a record seal.⁶

Learn how to seal Nevada criminal records.

6. Related offenses

Harassment

NRS 200.571 prohibits threatening someone else with harm, causing that person to fear that the threat will be carried out. Harassment can be a misdemeanor, gross misdemeanor, or a felony depending on the seriousness of the case and whether the defendant has prior convictions.⁷

Stalking

NRS 200.575 prohibits stalking, which is willfully causing another person to feel frightened or intimidated – usually through forced contact. It can be a misdemeanor, gross misdemeanor, or a felony depending on the seriousness of the case, the age of the victim, whether the defendant has prior convictions, and whether it involved cyber-stalking.⁸

Violating a restraining order

Violating the terms of a protective order (NRS 33.100) can be a misdemeanor, gross misdemeanor, or a felony depending on the purpose of the protective order, whether the order is a TPO or EPO, and whether the person has prior convictions. A common defense to these charges is that the defendant did not intentionally violate the order.⁹

Additional Reading

For more in-depth information, refer to these scholarly articles:

• Obscenity and Community Standards – Yale Journal of International Law.
• The Law of Obscenity – or Abusurdity – St. Thomas Law Review.
• Morals and the Constitution: The Sin of Obscenity – Columbia Law Review.
• The Metaphysics of the Law of Obscenity – The Supreme Court Review.
• Post-Modern Art and the Death of Obscenity Law – Yale Law Journal.
• Mobile Phone Harassment : An Exploration of Student’s Perceptions of Intrusive Texting Behavior – Human Technology: An Interdisciplinary Journal on Humans in ICT Environments.

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