BILL ANALYSIS Ó
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 256|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
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
AB 256
Page 2
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
AB 256
Page 3
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.
AB 256
Page 4
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
**** END ****
AB 256
Page 5