BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, Chair
SB 16 (Gaines) - Nonhomicide criminal trial reimbursements.
Amended: May 21, 2013 Policy Vote: G&F 7-0
Urgency: Yes Mandate: No
Hearing Date: January 21, 2014
Consultant: Mark McKenzie
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: SB 16 would provide a mechanism to reimburse
counties for extraordinary defense costs in nonhomicide criminal
trials that are investigated and prosecuted by the Attorney
General (AG) due to the scope and complexity of the case. The
bill would apply to nonhomicide trials or hearings commencing
after January 1, 2012.
Fiscal Impact:
Unknown, potentially significant General Fund costs in a
given fiscal year in which an authorized claim is received.
It is likely that claims will be intermittent and would
not exceed hundreds of thousands in costs in a given year.
Costs would depend upon the number of cases investigated
and prosecuted by the AG that result in significant
indigent defense costs for an affected county that exceed
the threshold for reimbursement. (see below for discussion
related to Nevada County)
Minor and absorbable costs to the SCO, assuming very few
claims are submitted annually by eligible counties.
Background: Existing law authorizes counties to apply to the
State Controller's Office (SCO) for reimbursement of costs for
investigations, trials, or hearings related to homicide crimes.
A county is eligible for reimbursement once aggregated costs
exceed a threshold of .0125 of 1 percent of the full assessed
value of property in that county. The Legislature adopted the
policy of reimbursing counties for extraordinary costs related
to homicide trials in 1961 in order to provide uniform
administration of justice throughout the state, to prevent
homicide trials from being hampered or delayed due to lack of
funds available to counties for such purposes, to prevent
serious impairment of county finances by homicide trials, and to
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provide state assistance in emergency situations. According to
the SCO, five counties have qualified for over $1 million in
reimbursement from the State General Fund over the past three
fiscal years for costs associated with 10 homicide trials.
The U.S. Supreme Court's opinion in Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)
held that the United States Constitution's 6th Amendment
guarantee of counsel is a fundamental right which applies to all
state criminal prosecutions. Existing law requires that counsel
must be provided at public expense to an indigent defendant
charged with any felony or misdemeanor.
In Nevada County, on September 20, 2012, four suspects were
arrested and charged with securities fraud, conspiracy, and
elder abuse for operating a Ponzi scheme that allegedly bilked
dozens of investors of over $2.3 million. The arrests were the
result of an investigation conducted by the State Department of
Justice's Special Crimes Unit (SCU), which coordinates the
investigation and prosecution of crimes involving large-scale,
investment and financial frauds, public corruption cases, and
high-tech crimes where the scope and complexity of offenses
exceed the investigative and prosecutorial resources of local
law enforcement and other state agencies. The criminal case is
being prosecuted by the Attorney General's Mortgage Fraud Strike
Force. Nevada County has a very small public defenders office
with limited resources. County officials indicate that costs to
provide counsel for indigent defendants in such a major and
complex real estate fraud case could have a severe impact on the
county's finances.
Proposed Law: SB 16 would provide a mechanism for reimbursing
counties for specified defense costs of trials and hearings in
nonhomicide criminal trials that are investigated and prosecuted
by the AG. Specifically, this bill would:
Authorize a county to apply to the SCO for reimbursement
of specified costs incurred by the county that exceed an
amount derived form a tax of .0125 of 1 percent of the full
assessed value of property in that county.
Specify that reimbursement authority only applies to
counties responsible for defense costs of trials or
hearings commencing after January 1, 2012 of a person
charged with a nonhomicide crime, when the AG is handling
the investigation and prosecution due to the scope and
complexity of the case, and not when a district attorney
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has been recused for a conflict of interest or for any
other reason unrelated to the scope and complexity of the
case.
Define "costs incurred by the county" as all trial
defense costs incurred by the county, except normal
salaries and expenses, including costs incurred by the
public defender in investigation and defense, and all costs
associated with pretrials, hearings, and postconviction
hearings.
Prohibit the SCO from providing reimbursement for costs
that exceed the California Victims Compensation and
Government Claims Board's standards for travel and per diem
expenses, except as specified in unusual cases, or for
costs for travel in excess of 1,000 miles on any single
round trip, without prior approval of the AG.
Require the SCO to reimburse a county, upon
appropriation by the Legislature, for actual defense costs
of an attorney or investigator at a specified hourly rate
charged by the AG, if the venue for trial has been changed
from the county eligible for reimbursement to another
county, and the public defender in that county has entered
into a contract with an attorney or investigator to try or
assist in the trial of the case.
Require the SCO to request that the Department of
Finance include any eligible reimbursement amounts in an
annual request for deficiency appropriation in augmentation
of the emergency fund.
Specify that any funds appropriated by the Legislature
for reimbursement to counties would be available for three
fiscal years, after which time any unused funds would
revert to the General Fund.
Authorize the SCO to adopt rules and regulations related
to this reimbursement program.
Staff Comments: SB 16 establishes a general reimbursement
structure for county costs associated with nonhomicide trials
and hearings prosecuted by the AG due to the scope and
complexity of the case. The bill is modeled after the current
statutory structure for reimbursement to counties for costs
incurred for homicide trials and hearings. While the bill would
apply to any county that provides defense in specified
nonhomicide cases, Nevada County is the only known candidate to
which the bill would apply at this time. According to the SCO's
Assessed Valuation Annual Report for Fiscal Year 2012-13, the
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net total assessed valuation of property in Nevada County was
$15.1 billion. Based on the threshold for reimbursement in the
bill, the county must incur aggregate defense costs of $1.89
million before it is eligible for reimbursement from the state.
Nevada County had only incurred $92,000 in costs by the end of
the 2012-13 fiscal year, but anticipates that defense costs in
the pending real estate fraud trial case may reach a level of
over $600,000 annually. The County anticipates that its
quarterly costs will escalate as the trial date approaches and
increase further once it begins. Once the County incurs
eligible costs that exceed the statutory threshold, all costs
associated with the trial would be reimbursable by the state.