Penal Law § 195.05 · Article 195. Official Misconduct and Obstruction of Public Servants Generally
Obstructing governmental administration in the second degree
Text — Law content up to date as of October 23, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
§ 195.05 Obstructing governmental administration in the second degree.
A person is guilty of obstructing governmental administration when:
1. Such person intentionally obstructs, impairs or perverts the administration of law or other governmental function or prevents or attempts to prevent a public servant from performing an official function, by means of intimidation, physical force or interference, or by means of any independently unlawful act, or by means of interfering, whether or not physical force is involved, with radio, telephone, television or other telecommunications systems owned or operated by the state, or a county, city, town, village, fire district or emergency medical service or by means of releasing a dangerous animal under circumstances evincing the actor's intent that the animal obstruct governmental administration; or
2. With the intent to violate a closing order, order to seal, temporary closing order, or temporary order to seal issued by a governmental entity to address a public health or safety concern, such person damages or removes any padlock or other device installed for the purpose of effectuating such order.
Obstructing governmental administration is a class A misdemeanor.
Source of truth
- Edition
- Law content up to date as of October 23, 2026, as published by the New York State Senate (Open Legislation)
- Official file
- https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/laws/PEN195.05
- Text hash
- sha256 b3d681b16a5c4059519fc8e42928a970c981596d92ad4e8e3817e2a5a809cc66
- Composed by
- gen_ny_statutes.py 2026-11-10: the Senate's Open Legislation law tree (GET /api/3/laws/<ID>?full=true) read in document order; the Senate's PDF of the whole law (GET /pdf/laws/<ID>?full=true), read with PDFium, prints the same words in the same order
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.