BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó



                                                                  SB 651
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   August 14, 2013

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                  Mike Gatto, Chair

               SB 651 (Pavley and Leno) - As Amended:  August 6, 2013  

          Policy Committee:                             HealthVote:19 - 0 
                       Human Services                           7 - 0 

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program:  
          No     Reimbursable:              

           SUMMARY  

          This bill establishes requirements for sexual assault  
          examinations of residents in state hospitals and developmental  
          centers, and establishes a new penalty for failure of  
          developmental centers to report specified incidents to local law  
          enforcement.  Specifically, this bill:  

          1)Makes it a class B violation for a developmental center to  
            fail to report to local law enforcement:  a) a death; b) a  
            sexual assault; c) an assault with a deadly weapon by a  
            nonresident; d) an assault with force likely to produce great  
            bodily injury; e) an injury to the genitals when the cause of  
            the injury is undetermined; or f) a broken bone, when the  
            cause of the break is undetermined, if those potential  
            assaults take place within a specific portion of the facility.

          2)Provides that if the incident occurs in the general acute care  
            hospital or acute psychiatric hospital portion of the  
            developmental center, a failure to immediately report the  
            incident would be subject to a civil penalty of $100 for each  
            day the incident is not reported.

          3)Requires designated investigators of state hospitals and  
            developmental centers to request a sexual assault forensic  
            medical examination for any resident of a state hospital who  
            is reasonably suspected to be a victim of sexual assault.

          4)Requires sexual assault forensic medical examinations to be  
            performed by an independent sexual assault forensic examiner  
            and prohibits them from being performed at the facility unless  
            it is deemed safer for the victim and the state hospital's  








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            examination facilities are properly equipped. 

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Costs associated with this legislation should be minor and  
          absorbable within existing Department of Developmental Services  
          (DDS) and Department of State Hospitals (DSH) resources. 

           COMMENTS  

           1)Rationale  . According to the author, this bill is designed to  
            address the lack of forensic evidence collection for sexual  
            assault victims and suspected sexual assault victims in state  
            developmental centers and state hospitals.  The author notes  
            that an investigation requested by DDS and undertaken by  
            Disability Rights California (DRC) in March 2012 identified 36  
            cases of alleged molestation of residents at California's  
            developmental centers by caretakers during the last three  
            years, but the Office of Protective Services (OPS), the  
            developmental centers' on-site police force, did not complete  
            even basic forensic evidence collections.  The author states  
            that OPS failed to order a single rape exam during this  
            period.  At other police departments, a rape examination by  
            trained forensic examiners for suspected sexual assault  
            victims is considered routine in order to collect evidence for  
            prosecution.

          This bill would require that state hospitals and developmental  
            centers provide a resident who is a victim or suspected victim  
            of sexual assault with a medical evidentiary examination at an  
            appropriate off-site facility.  This bill also creates a  
            penalty for developmental centers that fail to report serious  
            incidents of abuse or criminal conduct to law enforcement.  

            The author indicates that, since this bill was introduced, DDS  
            has reported that they have upgraded their training of first  
            responder staff and have sent three suspected rapes to outside  
            hospitals for sexual assault exams.  Two of the three have  
            been confirmed sexual assaults.  The author also indicates  
            that, between July 2010 and June 2013, DSH reports that it has  
            received 165 reports of sexual assaults by patients and staff.  
             Of those, approximately 29 patients were sent out to local  
            hospitals for rape exams.

           2)Related Legislation  . SB 1051 (Liu and Emmerson), Chapter 660,  








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            Statutes of 2012, established a requirement for DDS and DSH to  
            report certain crimes involving death or major injury to the  
            state's designated protection and advocacy agency, requires  
            that mandated reporters within a developmental center  
            immediately report suspected abuse to OPS, and defined the job  
            requirements for the Director of OPS.

            SB 1522 (Leno), Chapter 666, Statutes of 2012, established the  
            requirement that DDS report major crimes, as specified, to the  
            local law enforcement agency with jurisdiction over the  
            developmental center regardless of whether OPS had  
            investigated the facts of the incident.


           Analysis Prepared by  :    Julie Salley-Gray / APPR. / (916)  
          319-2081