Assault on the Elderly in Texas: Charges, Penalties, and Neglect

Assault on the elderly in Texas is always a felony. Under Texas Penal Code Section 22.04, causing any bodily injury, serious bodily injury, or serious mental impairment to a person 65 or older exposes the defendant to charges that range from a state jail felony to a first-degree felony carrying up to life in prison.¹ Where the case lands on that scale depends on two things: how badly the victim was hurt, and whether the accused acted intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, or with criminal negligence.

Who Counts as Elderly

Texas uses a fixed age. A person is “elderly” for purposes of Section 22.04 if they are 65 or older at the time of the offense.¹ Frailty, appearance, and health status do not enter into it. If official records show the victim had reached 65, the enhanced treatment applies.

What Kind of Harm the Statute Covers

Three categories of harm trigger the statute, and the category the state can prove sets the ceiling on the charge.

Bodily injury is the broadest. Texas defines it as physical pain, illness, or any impairment of physical condition.¹ A bruise from a shove, soreness from being grabbed, a small cut — none of it requires medical treatment to qualify. Any physical pain is enough.

Serious bodily injury is a much higher bar. It means harm that creates a substantial risk of death, causes permanent disfigurement, or causes long-term loss or impairment of the use of a limb or organ.² A broken hip, a traumatic brain injury, a wound that leaves a permanent scar — those are the sorts of injuries that push a case into the serious category.

Serious mental deficiency, impairment, or injury covers psychological harm. A significant decline in cognitive functioning or mental state can support a charge even without visible physical injury. Proving it usually means medical or psychiatric testimony.

Charges and Penalties by Mental State and Injury

Every offense under Section 22.04 is a felony. The degree depends on the intersection of what the defendant did mentally and how badly the victim was hurt.

First-Degree Felony

Intentionally or knowingly causing serious bodily injury or serious mental impairment to an elderly person is a first-degree felony.¹ The punishment range is 5 to 99 years or life in prison, plus a possible fine of up to $10,000.³ These are the cases where the defendant either meant to cause the harm or was aware the harm was reasonably certain to follow.

Second-Degree Felony

If the same serious bodily injury or serious mental impairment results from reckless conduct rather than intent, the charge is a second-degree felony.¹ Recklessness means the person was aware their conduct created a substantial risk of harm and went ahead anyway. Punishment runs 2 to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.⁴

Third-Degree Felony

Intentionally or knowingly causing ordinary bodily injury — not the serious kind — to an elderly person is a third-degree felony.¹ The sentencing range is 2 to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.⁵

State Jail Felony

Two paths lead to a state jail felony. First, recklessly causing ordinary bodily injury. Second, causing any of the three categories of harm through criminal negligence.¹ Criminal negligence is a lower threshold than recklessness: the person should have been aware of a substantial risk but failed to perceive it. A state jail felony carries 180 days to 2 years of confinement and a fine of up to $10,000.⁶

A state jail felony can be enhanced upward to a third-degree felony if the defendant used or displayed a deadly weapon during the offense or has a prior felony conviction for certain specified offenses.⁶

Neglect Counts as Assault Under This Statute

Section 22.04 is not limited to hitting, pushing, or other affirmative acts. It also punishes causing harm to an elderly person by failing to act when you have a duty to provide care.¹

That duty exists in two situations: when a legal or statutory obligation requires you to act, or when you have assumed care, custody, or control of the person. Assumed care is defined broadly. If your actions, words, or pattern of conduct would lead a reasonable person to conclude you had accepted responsibility for the elderly person’s protection, food, shelter, or medical care, the duty attaches.¹ A family member who moves in to look after an aging parent can face the same felony exposure as someone who struck them.

The Human Resources Code defines neglect as the failure to provide goods or services, including medical services, necessary to avoid physical or emotional harm.⁷ Withholding medication, letting bedsores go untreated, failing to provide adequate food or water, leaving a mobility-impaired person in a hazardous spot — when any of that produces bodily injury or worse, the neglect can be charged under Section 22.04. The charging tier still depends on the injury severity and mental state grid above.

Facility Owners and Employees

Section 22.04(a-1) creates a separate offense aimed at institutional caregivers. An owner, operator, or employee of a nursing home, assisted living facility, group home, boarding home facility, or similar setting who causes harm to an elderly resident through neglect commits an offense even without deliberate wrongdoing.¹ The statute treats these employees as having accepted responsibility for each resident in their care, so prosecutors do not need to prove the caregiver relationship separately.

Consequences Beyond the Criminal Sentence

A Section 22.04 case does not travel alone. Several other legal mechanisms attach to elder abuse in Texas, and defendants and families should know they operate in parallel with the criminal case.

Reporting is mandatory. Anyone who has reason to believe an elderly person is being abused, neglected, or exploited must report it to the Department of Family and Protective Services, and the obligation reaches everyone, including attorneys, clergy, and medical practitioners who normally handle confidential communications.⁸ Reports go to the Texas Abuse Hotline at 1-800-252-5400 or txabusehotline.org.⁹ Failing to report is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in county jail and a fine of up to $4,000, and in narrow circumstances involving certain intellectually disabled residents of state-supported living centers, it can rise to a state jail felony.¹⁰

When the abuse involves family violence, a protective order can prohibit the abuser from contact and generally lasts up to two years. Courts can extend that period if the abuser committed a felony involving family violence, caused serious bodily injury, or was the subject of two or more prior protective orders against the same person.¹¹ There is no fee to obtain one in Texas.

A civil suit is available regardless of what happens in the criminal case. An elderly victim or their family can pursue compensatory damages for medical costs, pain and suffering, and other losses, and punitive damages where the abuse involved malice or gross negligence. Texas applies a two-year statute of limitations to personal injury claims, running from the date of injury, so families who want to keep that option open should not delay evaluating it.

1
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code 22.04 – Injury to a Child, Elderly Individual, or Disabled Individual
2
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code 1.07 – Definitions
3
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code 12.32 – First Degree Felony Punishment
4
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code 12.33 – Second Degree Felony Punishment
5
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code 12.34 – Third Degree Felony Punishment
6
State of Texas. Texas Penal Code 12.35 – State Jail Felony Punishment
7
State of Texas. Texas Human Resources Code 48.002 – Definitions
8
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Who Should Report Abuse
9
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. DFPS – Report Abuse or Neglect
10
Texas Public Law. Texas Human Resources Code 48.052 – Failure to Report, Penalty
11
State of Texas. Texas Family Code 85.025 – Duration of Protective Order