The Legislature continued to tackle serious crimes by enhancing programs and services for victims, particularly for victims of human trafficking and domestic violence.
HB 4210 requires the Human Trafficking Response Unit to maintain data and develop training programs to assist agencies and victims of human trafficking.
HB 4224 clarifies that no child who is a victim of human trafficking will be subject to juvenile delinquency or criminal proceedings for prostitution related offenses.
SB 1116 requires the Department of Public Safety to disqualify a person from operating a motor vehicle for life if the person is convicted of felony human trafficking while operating a commercial motor vehicle.
SB 974 provides a definition of discovery as used within the statute of limitations for the prosecution of sex crimes against children to mean the date that a physical or sexually related crime involving a victim 18 years of age or older is reported to a law enforcement agency.
HB 3024 adds a category to the list of eligible circumstances for an expungement. A person may file a motion for expungement if they were charged with not more than two felony offenses and the charges were dismissed following the successful completion of a deferred judgment or delayed sentence, none of which were felony offenses listed as an 85% crime or a sex offense, no felony or misdemeanor charges are pending against the person, and at least 10 years have passed since the charges were dismissed.
HB 3258 modifies the elements of the crime of sodomy by providing that the crime of forcible sodomy occurs when committed against a student at a secondary school who is concurrently enrolled at an institution of higher education by an employee of the institution. The measure also modifies the crimes of rape, rape by instrumentation and lewd molestation by including where the victim is a student at a secondary school but is concurrently enrolled at an institution of higher education and engages in sexual intercourse with a person who is three or more years of age older than the concurrently enrolled student and is an employee of the institution of higher education.
HB 3648 creates Mackenzie’s Law, which provides that a preliminary hearing must commence no later than nine months from the initial appearance of the defendant. If commencement of the preliminary hearing is delayed past the nine month time limit, a show cause hearing is to be scheduled by the court.
I authored HB3925, which creates a court cost compliance program to begin November 1, 2022, which will be overseen by a 13-member Cost Administration Implementation Committee. Sheriffs are authorized to contract with a third party to locate and notify persons of their outstanding warrants, and outstanding warrants may be recalled if the person provides a down payment of $100 and a mutually agreeable monthly payment plan. The measure requires the court to notify the defendant at the time of sentencing of all required payments, and the court must consider the defendant’s ability to pay and take into consideration certain criteria laid out in the measure.
No person may be arrested for failure to pay if that person voluntarily appears at the courthouse to make a payment or to present evidence regarding ability to pay. If a defendant is delinquent for 60 days, the court must set a hearing to determine ability to pay.
HB 4194 requires the court to assess prior patterns of abuse and present written findings for persons arrested for any crime provided for in the Protection from Domestic Abuse Act or certain violent crimes when considering bail amounts.
HB 4373 modifies the elements of third-degree burglary to include the theft of tires, wheels and catalytic converters and sets a fine for burglary in the third degree at up to $5,000.
HB 4374 creates the Stephen Bernius Memorial Act, which modifies the definition of family or household members as used in the Protection from Domestic Abuse Act and the Domestic Abuse Reporting Act to include persons not related by blood or marriage living in the same household.
SB 1548 provides that each county may establish a drug court program and a juvenile court program. The measure directs the district attorney to determine any statutory prohibitions on the offender that prevents participation. The measure also directs each drug court to develop agreedupon, objective eligibility criteria to determine presumptive drug court eligibility for offenders.
Notification must be provided to victims if the offender involved in the crime seeks to participate in the program. Additionally, the measure requires any offender admitted to the drug court program for a crime which requires the offender to attend a batterers’ intervention program to continue attending the intervention program as a condition of participating in the drug court.
