WPIC 38.00 Introduction

Criminal mistreatment charges have taken on particular importance because some counties are charging criminal mistreatment as a predicate offense for felony murder and because elder abuse cases are being prosecuted more frequently than in the past.

Additionally, RCW Chapter 9A.42 sets forth two other offenses not addressed in this chapter—leaving a child in the care of a sex offender (RCW 9A.42.110) and endangerment with a controlled substance (RCW 9A.42.100). Pattern instructions have not been drafted for these offenses because they are not frequently charged.

The statutes set forth a defense of financial inability (RCW 9A.42.050) that is addressed by WPIC 19.14 (Criminal Mistreatment—Financial Inability—Defense). Several other statutes in RCW Chapter 9A.42 set forth exceptions under which the criminal mistreatment or abandonment offenses do not apply. See RCW 9A.42.040 (withdrawal of life support systems as an exception for criminal mistreatment), RCW 9A.42.045 (palliative care as an exception for criminal mistreatment), RCW 9A.42.060 through 9A.42.080 (relinquishing a newborn baby to a qualified person as an exception for abandonment), and RCW 9A.42.090 (terminating services as a defense to abandonment). For cases involving these statutory exceptions and/or defenses, practitioners will need to draft an instruction tailored to their particular case.