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