BILL ANALYSIS
SB 840
Page 1
Date of Hearing: August 4, 2010
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
SB 840 (Yee) - As Amended: June 24, 2010
Policy Committee: Public
SafetyVote:5-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable:
SUMMARY
This bill changes - from 14 to 18 - the current requirement that
a victim be under the age of 14 in order to charge a person for
failure to report to police a witnessed act of murder, rape, or
specified lewd and lascivious acts. This bill also:
1)Expands the sex crimes that witnesses must report from lewd
and lascivious act accomplished by force, to include sodomy,
oral copulation, and sexual penetration, as specified, when
accomplished by force.
2)Adds a $250 infraction to the existing misdemeanor penalty of
up to six months in county jail and/or a fine of up to $1,500
- for failure to report.
3)Specifies victims cannot be prosecuted for failing to report
crimes against themselves.
4)Adds domestic partners to the list of relatives not required
to report.
5)Specifies minors under the age of 12 may not be prosecuted for
failing to report.
SB 840
Page 2
FISCAL EFFECT
Unknown, likely minor, non-reimbursable local costs to the
extent increasing the victim age requirement results in
additional prosecutions under the existing misdemeanor failure
to report statute.
Unknown, potentially moderate, state costs for increased state
incarceration to the extent eliminating the victim age
requirement results in more and/or more successful prosecutions
and additional state prison commitments for murder, rape, and
specified lewd and lascivious acts. For example, just one
additional annual state prison commitment per year would result
in increased annual GF costs of almost $200,000 in four years.
Costs could increase depending on the conviction offense and the
sentence.
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . The author's office indicates this bill is in
response to the lack of witnesses who came forth following the
October 2009 incident in Richmond, CA, in which a 16-year-old
woman was sexually assaulted in front of numerous people. The
author contends changing - from 14 to 18 -the requirement that
the victim be under the age of 14 before a witness can be
charged with failure to report the crime will lead to more
effective prosecutions.
2)Opposition. The California District Attorneys Association
(CDAA) opposes this bill because a prosecutor who uses a
witness who did not report one of these crimes will have to
give the witness immunity or charge the witness with a crime.
The district attorney will be required to inform defense
counsel of any immunity deal and the witness will then be
subject to impeachment on cross-examination, thereby reducing
the witness's credibility.
According to CDAA, "We appreciate what we perceive to be the
implicit goal of this bill: to increase the frequency with
SB 840
Page 3
which terrible crimes are reported to law enforcement.
Unfortunately, we are concerned that this bill could
jeopardize prosecutions for the underlying crimes that you are
seeking to have reported. It is for this reason that CDAA
opposed the creation of Penal Code Section 152.3 by AB 1422
(Torlakson, Chapter 477, Statutes of 2000) and must now oppose
its expansion.
"Our specific concern lies with the fact that, if a prosecutor
needs or wants to use a witness who has failed to report the
crime at issue, the prosecutor will likely have to grant the
witness immunity from the offense of failing to notify a peace
officer. Conferring immunity can damage the People's case
because the immunity agreement will be disclosed to the
defense and could be used as the basis for impeachment despite
the fact that the jury might not know the nature of the
offense for which the witness has been granted immunity.
"Additionally, the statute's broad exception from reporting
that applies to a witness who fears for his or her safety or
that of his or her family renders this law, as currently
written and as proposed to be amended by this bill,
essentially toothless. We fear that this measure will not
effectively encourage the reporting of crimes, but could very
likely hinder prosecutions of horrific offenses by expanding
the breadth of the reporting requirement."
3)Prior Legislation .
a) AB 984 (Nava) eliminates the requirement that a victim
be under the age of 14 when making it a crime for a person
to fail to report to police an instance when he or she
witnesses a murder, rape, or specified lewd and lascivious
acts. AB 984 was held in the Senate Public Safety
Committee.
b) AB 1422 (Torlakson), Statutes of 2000, created the
underlying misdemeanor offense for not reporting a
witnessed instance of murder, rape or specified lewd and
lascivious act against a child under the age of 14.
SB 840
Page 4
Analysis Prepared by : Geoff Long / APPR. / (916) 319-2081