§ 122.0021.Criminal Penalty

Two sentences turning the chapter’s prohibition into a criminal offense.

A person commits an offense if the person violates Section 122.001, and an offense under this section is a Class B misdemeanor.

The offense borrows the prohibition entirely. Nothing is defined here; whatever Section 122.001 forbids is the criminal conduct, which means the two competing texts of that section carry through to this one.

A Class B misdemeanor is punishable by a fine of up to $2,000, up to 180 days in county jail, or both.

The sum is modest against the civil exposure, which starts at a year’s compensation — so the criminal provision is not where the financial risk lies.

Its significance is what it says about the conduct. Punishing interference with jury service criminally places it alongside other offenses against the administration of justice rather than treating it as a private employment dispute.

That reflects whose interest is at stake. A jury summons is compulsory, and an employee facing dismissal for answering it is caught between two legal obligations. The state has its own reason to remove the pressure.

The chapter therefore offers three responses to one act — a civil claim with reinstatement and damages, this offense, and the contempt power in the next section — and nothing makes them alternatives.

Prosecution is not the employee’s to bring. It belongs to the state, so an employee’s own remedy remains the civil action.