BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó






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                                   THIRD READING 


          Bill No:  AB 256
          Author:   Jones-Sawyer (D)
          Amended:  6/16/15 in Senate
          Vote:     21  

           SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE:  7-0, 6/23/15
           AYES:  Hancock, Anderson, Glazer, Leno, Liu, Monning, Stone

           SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE:  7-0, 8/27/15
           AYES:  Lara, Bates, Beall, Hill, Leyva, Mendoza, Nielsen

           ASSEMBLY FLOOR:  79-0, 5/11/15 - See last page for vote

           SUBJECT:   Falsifying evidenceFalsifying evidence.


          SOURCE:    California Attorneys for Criminal Justice


          DIGEST:  This bill expands the prohibition against knowingly,  
          willfully, and intentionally tampering with evidence to include  
          digital images and video recordings.


          ANALYSIS:   


          Existing law: 

          1)Provides that every peace officer who files any report with  
            the agency which employs him or her regarding the commission  
            of any crime or any investigation of any crime, if he or she  
            knowingly and intentionally makes any statement regarding any  








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            material matter in the report which the officer knows to be  
            false, is guilty of filing a false report punishable by  
            imprisonment in the county jail for up to one year, or in the  
            state prison for one, two, or three years. (Penal Code  
            §118.1.) 

          2)Provides that every person who, knowing that any book, paper,  
            record, instrument in writing, or other matter or thing, is  
            about to be produced in evidence upon any trial, inquiry, or  
            investigation whatever, authorized by law, willfully destroys  
            or conceals the same, with intent thereby to prevent it from  
            being produced, is guilty of a misdemeanor (Penal Code §135.) 

          3)Provides that every person who reports to any peace officer,  
            or district attorney, that a felony or misdemeanor has been  
            committed, knowing the report to be false, is guilty of a  
            misdemeanor. (Penal Code §148.5 (a).) 

          4)Makes it a misdemeanor for a person to knowingly, willfully,  
            and intentionally alter, modify, plant, place, manufacture,  
            conceal, or move any physical matter, with specific intent  
            that the action will result in a person being charged with a  
            crime, or with the specific intent that the physical matter be  
            will be wrongfully produced as genuine or true upon any trial,  
            proceeding or inquiry. (Penal Code, §141(a).) 

          5)Makes it a felony for a peace officer to knowingly, willfully,  
            and intentionally alter, modify, plant, place, manufacture,  
            conceal, or move any physical matter, with specific intent  
            that the action will result in a person being charged with a  
            crime, or with the specific intent that the physical matter be  
            will be wrongfully produced as genuine or true upon any trial,  
            proceeding or inquiry. (Penal Code §141(b).) 

          This bill:

          1)Specifies that the prohibition on destroying or concealing  
            evidence applies to a digital image or a video recording owned  
            by another and applies also if it was erased with the intent  
            to prevent it or its content from being produced.

          2) Specifies that the prohibition against a peace officer  
            knowingly, willfully and intentionally tampering with physical  
            evidence to charge someone with a crime or to produce as true  







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            evidence at trial includes tampering with a digital image or  
            video recording. 

          3)Makes it a felony for a peace officer to knowingly, willfully,  
            intentionally and wrongfully tamper with a digital image, or  
            video recording with the specific intent that the physical  
            matter, digital image or video recording will be concealed or  
            destroyed or fraudulently represented as the original evidence  
            upon a trial, proceeding, or inquiry. 
          Background


          Existing law prohibits any individual from willfully destroying  
          or concealing, knowing it will be evidence in a case, with the  
          intent of keeping it from being produced in that case.  It  is  
          generally a misdemeanor but is a felony if a peace officer  
          knowingly, willfully and intentionally alters, modifies, plants,  
          places, manufacturers conceals or moves and physical matter with  
          the intent that the action will result in a person being charged  
          with a crime or that he evidence will be represented as original  
          in a trial.  This bill updates these sections to include a  
          digital image or video recording

          FISCAL EFFECT:   Appropriation:    No          Fiscal  
          Com.:YesLocal:   Yes


          According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:


           Potential increase in state costs (General Fund) for felony  
            convictions resulting in additional commitments to state  
            prison. While the number of commitments to state prison in any  
            one year is likely to be minimal, to the extent even one  
            commitment per year occurs over a two-year period would result  
            in state costs of $54,000 based on the estimated in-state  
            contract bed cost per inmate of $27,000 per year.


           Potential increase in non-reimbursable local enforcement and  
            incarceration costs, offset to a degree by fine revenue for  
            new misdemeanor convictions.









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          SUPPORT:   (Verified  8/28/15)


          California Attorneys for Criminal Justice (source)
          American Civil Liberties Union
          American Friends Service Committee
          California District Attorneys Association
          California Police Chiefs Association, Inc.
          California Public Defenders Association
          Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
          Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office


          OPPOSITION:   (Verified  8/28/15)


          None received


          ASSEMBLY FLOOR:  79-0, 5/11/15
          AYES:  Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom,  
            Bonilla, Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang,  
            Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle,  
            Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina  
            Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez,  
            Gordon, Gray, Grove, Hadley, Harper, Roger Hernández, Holden,  
            Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder,  
            Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina,  
            Melendez, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen,  
            Patterson, Perea, Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez,  
            Salas, Santiago, Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting,  
            Wagner, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams, Wood
          NO VOTE RECORDED:  Atkins

          Prepared by:Mary Kennedy / PUB. S. / 
          8/31/15 8:31:55


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