A. A person who knowingly participates or conspires or attempts to participate in the use of any extortionate means to collect any extensions of credit or to cause harm to the person, reputation or property of any person for the nonpayment thereof is guilty of a third degree felony.

B. In any prosecution pursuant to this section, for the purpose of showing an implicit threat as a means of collection, evidence may be introduced tending to show that one or more extensions of credit by the creditor were, to the knowledge of the person against whom the implicit threat was alleged to have been made, collected or attempted to be collected by extortionate means or that the nonpayment resulted in the use of extortionate means.

C. In any prosecution pursuant to this section, if evidence has been introduced tending to show the existence at the time the extension of credit in question was made of the circumstances described in Paragraph (1) of Subsection B of Section 30-43-3 NMSA 1978 and direct evidence of the actual belief of the debtor as to the creditor's collection practices is not available, then for the purpose of showing that words or other means of communication shown to have been employed as a means of collection in fact carried an express or implicit threat, the court may, pursuant to the New Mexico rules of evidence, in its discretion, allow evidence to be introduced tending to show the reputation of the defendant in any community of which the person against whom the alleged threat was made was a member at the time of the collection or attempt at collection.

History: Laws 1980, ch. 39, § 5.