BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    �



                                                                  SB 1474
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   August 8, 2012

                        ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
                                Felipe Fuentes, Chair

                   SB 1474 (Hancock) - As Amended:  August 6, 2012 

          Policy Committee:                             Public 
          SafetyVote:4-0

          Urgency:     No                   State Mandated Local Program: 
          No     Reimbursable:               

           SUMMARY  

          This bill allows the Attorney General (AG) to convene a special 
          statewide grand jury in cases involving fraud or theft that 
          occur in more than one county and where all potential charges 
          are against a single defendant or multiple defendants acting in 
          concert. Specifically, this bill:  

          1)Specifies this special statewide grand jury may be impaneled 
            in the Counties of Fresno, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Diego, 
            or San Francisco, at the AG's discretion.  The AG shall use an 
            existing regularly impaneled grand jury to serve as the 
            special statewide grand jury.

          2)Provides that the special grand jury may indict a person or 
            persons for crimes that occurred in counties other than where 
            the special grand jury is impaneled and that the indictment 
            shall then be submitted to the appropriate court in any of the 
            counties where any of the charges could otherwise have been 
            properly brought.

          3)As in the case of any other grand jury convened by the AG, the 
            Superior Court of the county in which the grand jury is 
            convened shall submit a statement of costs for state 
            reimbursement. 

           FISCAL EFFECT  

          Minor costs, likely less than $150,000 to reimburse counties 
          and/or state trial courts, per existing law, for special grand 
          jury expenses, such as per diem and mileage. 









                                                                  SB 1474
                                                                  Page  2

           COMMENTS  

           1)Rationale  .  According to the author and sponsor, the AG, 
            in an effort to combat widespread financial abuses in the 
            mortgage industry, the AG is engaged in the investigation 
            of significant financial crimes of statewide scope and 
            impact. Existing county grand jury authority to 
            investigate these crimes, however, is ill-suited to these 
            cases as crimes of a financial nature often occur in 
            multiple jurisdictions, and thus are often beyond the 
            scope of single-county grand juries.  SB 1474 gives the AG 
            the option of a statewide grand jury to investigate 
            multi-jurisdictional financial crimes in a manner not 
            possible under current law.

           2)Support  includes the California District Attorneys Association 
            and the California Nurses Association.

           3)There is no known opposition  .  
                
            4)Identical legislation  , AB 1763 (Davis), is pending in the 
            Senate.     


           Analysis Prepared by  :    Geoff Long / APPR. / (916) 319-2081