BILL ANALYSIS Ó AB 1850 Page 1 CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS AB 1850 (Waldron) As Amended August 11, 2014 Majority vote ----------------------------------------------------------------- |ASSEMBLY: |74-0 |(May 8, 2014) |SENATE: |35-0 |(August 14, | | | | | | |2014) | ----------------------------------------------------------------- Original Committee Reference: PUB. S. SUMMARY : Provides that a minor who was not a victim of, but who was physically present at the time of an act of domestic violence, is a witness and is deemed to have suffered harm for the purposes of issuing a protective order in a pending criminal case. The Senate amendments double joint this bill with AB 1498 (Campos) of the current legislative session and SB 910 (Pavley) of the current legislative session, to avoid chaptering issues. EXISTING LAW : 1)Authorizes the trial court in a criminal case to issue protective orders when there is a good cause belief that harm to, or intimidation or dissuasion of a victim or witness has occurred or is reasonably likely to occur. 2)Provides that a person violating a protective order may be punished for any substantive offense described in provisions of law related to intimidation of witnesses or victims, or for a contempt of the court making the order. 3)Requires a court, in all cases where the defendant is charged with a crime of domestic violence, to consider issuing a protective order on its own motion. All interested parties shall receive a copy of those orders. In order to facilitate this, the court's records of all criminal cases involving domestic violence shall be marked to clearly alert the court to this issue. 4)States in those cases in which a complaint, information, or indictment charging a crime of domestic violence has been issued, except as specified, a restraining order or protective AB 1850 Page 2 order against the defendant issued by the criminal court in that case has precedence in enforcement over a civil court order against the defendant. 5)Allows a court, in any case in which a complaint, information, or indictment charging a crime of domestic violence has been filed, to consider, in determining whether good cause exists to issue a protective order, the underlying nature of the offense charged, and any information about the defendant's prior convictions for domestic violence, other forms of violence or weapons offenses, and any current protective or restraining order issued by a criminal or civil court. 6)States that a "protective order" means an order that includes any of the following restraining orders, whether issued ex parte, after notice and hearing, or in a judgment: a) An order enjoining specific acts of abuse, such as contacting, molesting, and striking, as described. b) An order excluding a person from a dwelling, as described. c) An order enjoining other specified behavior necessary to effectuate the first two orders, as described. 7)Provides that a court may issue an ex parte order enjoining a party from molesting, attacking, striking, stalking, threatening, sexually assaulting, battering, harassing, telephoning, including, but not limited to, making annoying telephone calls as described, destroying personal property, contacting, either directly or indirectly, by mail or otherwise, coming within a specified distance of, or disturbing the peace of the other party, and, in the discretion of the court, on a showing of good cause, of other named family or household members. 8)Authorizes a court to issue an ex parte order excluding a party from the family dwelling, the dwelling of the other party, the common dwelling of both parties, or the dwelling of the person who has care, custody, and control of a child to be protected from domestic violence for the period of time and on the conditions the court determines, regardless of which party holds legal or equitable title or is the lessee of the dwelling. The court may issue such an order only on a showing AB 1850 Page 3 of all of the following: a) Facts sufficient for the court to ascertain that the party who will stay in the dwelling has a right under color of law to possession of the premises. b) That the party to be excluded has assaulted or threatens to assault the other party or any other person under the care, custody, and control of the other party, or any minor child of the parties or of the other party. c) That physical or emotional harm would otherwise result to the other party, to any person under the care, custody, and control of the other party, or to any minor child of the parties or of the other party. FISCAL EFFECT : According to Senate Appropriations Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8, negligible state costs. COMMENTS : According to the author, "AB 1850 makes clear in the law that a child's presence during an act of domestic violence makes the child a witness to the act who has suffered harm, thereby permitting courts to issue protective orders for such children. This legislation is needed to protect infants and young children who cannot vocalize or otherwise testify about the harm they suffered by being powerless witnesses to acts of domestic violence. Infants and young children cannot review and sign declarations attesting to the harm they suffered, testify in court, or be interviewed by investigators. Therefore, there is nothing in current law that would enable their protection. AB 1850 would fill that void." Please see the policy committee for a full discussion of this bill. Analysis Prepared by : Stella Choe / PUB. S. / (916) 319-3744 FN: 0004588