Sec. 42.20.085. - Priority of official communications; penalty for refusal, delay, or alteration of transmission.
On application of an officer of the state in case of war, insurrection, riot, civil commotion, or resistance of public authority, for the prevention and punishment of crime, or for the arrest of persons suspected or charged with crime, a telegraph company shall give immediate dispatch to the communication of the officer at the price of ordinary communications of the same length. An officer, agent, operator, or employee of the company who refuses or wilfully omits to transmit the communication, or designedly alters it or falsifies it is, upon conviction, punishable by a fine of not more than $1000, or by imprisonment in jail for not more than one year, or by both.