Chapter 265 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after section 43A the following section:-

Section 43B. (a) For the purposes of this section, the following words shall, unless the context requires otherwise, have the following meanings:-

“Sporting event”, any interscholastic or intramural athletic activity, any organized athletic activity sponsored by a community, business or nonprofit organization, any athletic activity that is a professional or semiprofessional event and any other organized athletic activity enforced by a sports official. A “sporting event” shall also include pre-sporting event and post-sporting event activities and surrounding parking areas.

“Sports official”, any individual who enforces the rules of a sporting event including, but not limited to, a referee, umpire, linesman or someone who serves in a similar capacity but may be known by a different title or name and is duly registered by, or a member of, a local, state, regional or national organization engaged in part in providing education and training to sports officials.

(b) Whoever commits an assault or an assault and battery upon a sports official at a sporting event shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than 5 years, or by imprisonment in a house of correction for not more than 2 ½ years, or by a fine of not more than $5,000, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

(c) Whoever willfully and maliciously engages in a knowing pattern of conduct or series of acts at a sporting event directed at a sports official, which seriously alarms that sports official and would cause a reasonable person to suffer substantial emotional distress, shall be guilty of the crime of criminal harassment of a sports official and shall be punished by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than 5 years, or by imprisonment in a house of correction for not more than 2½ years, or by a fine of not more than $5,000, or by both such fine and imprisonment.