BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 218|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: SB 218
Author: Solis (D), et al
Amended: 4/20/99
Vote: 21
SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE : 7-0, 4/6/99
AYES: Burton, Escutia, O'Connell, Peace, Sher, Wright,
Schiff
NOT VOTING: Haynes, Morrow
SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE : 5-0, 4/13/99
AYES: Vasconcellos, Burton, Johnston, McPherson, Rainey
NOT VOTING: Polanco
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : Senate Rule 28.8
SUBJECT : Domestic violence: firearm seizures:
penalties: additional reforms
SOURCE : Los Angeles City Attorney's Office
DIGEST : This bill makes several changes in domestic
violence law, including 1) requiring, rather than
authorizing, law enforcement to seize firearms and deadly
weapons at domestic violence scenes; 2) requiring, rather
than authorizing, courts to seize firearms and ammunition
from persons subject of domestic violence protective
orders, as specified; 3) revising and recasting existing
felony domestic violence statutes, especially with regard
to mandatory minimum jail terms for repeat offenses; and 4)
making additional changes relating to domestic violence
CONTINUED
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death review teams, unofficial translations of a court
order, and additional miscellaneous provisions.
ANALYSIS : Domestic Violence Protective Orders:
Possession of Firearms
Under existing law, persons who are subject to a temporary
restraining order issued pursuant to Section 527.6 or 527.8
of the Civil Code for harassing behavior, or a protective
order under Family Code Section 6218, may not purchase or
receive a firearm for the duration of the order.
Under existing law, persons convicted of misdemeanor
violations of listed sections may not possess firearms
within ten years of conviction. Specified peace officers
may petition a court once for relief due to employment or
livelihood dependent of use of firearm.
Existing law authorizes courts to order a person who is the
subject of a domestic violence protective order to
relinquish possession or control of any firearm during the
period covered by the order. Under existing law, a person
subject to a domestic violence restraining order may be
prohibited from owning or possessing any firearm.
Existing federal law provides that a person who is subject
to a court order that restrains the person from harassing,
stalking, or threatening an intimate partner or child of
such intimate partner cannot lawfully receive, possess,
ship, or transport a firearm or ammunition, as specified.
This bill requires courts to prohibit possession or control
of any firearm by a restrained party while the order is in
effect, and would require courts to order the
relinquishment of any firearm in that party's possession or
control within specified time periods.
Current law authorizes courts to extend or shorten time
requirements relating to firearms surrendered under this
provision.
This bill deletes this authority.
Domestic Violence Situations: Seizure of Firearms by Law
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Enforcement
Current law generally authorizes law enforcement at the
scene of a family violence incident involving a threat to
human life or a physical assault to take temporary custody
of any firearm or other deadly weapon in plain sight or
discovered pursuant to a consensual search as necessary for
the protection of the peace officer or other persons
present.
This bill requires law enforcement to seize a firearm or
other deadly weapon under this provision.
This bill also revises and recasts the definitions in this
code section as follows:
1.replaces the term "family violence" with "domestic
violence";
2.adds sexual assault;
3.adds to the parent provisions language including
presumptive parents under the Uniform Parentage Act; and
4.adds conduct specified in Family Code Section 6320 "that
has been or could be enjoined."
Felony Domestic Violence: Penalties
Under current law corporal injury upon a "spouse, or . . .
any person with whom (the offender) is cohabiting, or . . .
any person who is the mother or father of (the offender's)
child" resulting in a traumatic condition is a felony
punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for two,
three, or four years, or in a county jail for not more than
one year, or by a fine of up to six thousand dollars or by
both. For purposes of this felony offense, "'traumatic
condition' means a condition of the body, such as a wound
or external or internal injury, whether of a minor or
serious nature, caused by a physical force."
Under current law, persons convicted of felony domestic
violence can be subject to an enhanced prison term of two,
four, or five years if the offense occurred within seven
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years of one of the following offenses against a victim
designated in the felony domestic violence statute:
1.battery inflicting serious bodily injury;
2.sexual battery;
3.assault with caustic chemicals or flammable;
4.assault with a stun gun or taser;
5.assault with a deadly weapon likely to produce great
bodily injury; or
6.felony domestic violence.
Under current law, mandatory minimum jail terms are
required for certain repeat offenses if probation is
granted to a person convicted of felony domestic violence
(273.5):
1.one prior 273.5 violation within seven years: not less
than 96-hour mandatory minimum;
2.two or more 273.5 priors within seven years: not less
than 30-day mandatory minimum;
3.one prior 273.5, 243(d), 243.4, 244, 244.5, 245 within
seven years, where prior victim spouse, cohabitant or
parent of child: not less than 15-day mandatory minimum
4.two or more priors of one of 273.5, 243(d), 243.4, 244,
244.5,245 within seven years, where prior victim spouse,
cohabitant or parent of child: not less than 60 days;
This bill retains current imprisonment terms, but would
restructure and recast these mandatory minimum jail time
penalties if probation is granted as follows:
1.repeal Penal Code Sections 273.55 and 273.56;
2.one prior 273.5 violation within seven years: not less
than 15 days; and
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3.two or more prior 273.5 violations within seven years:
not less than 60 days.
This bill also restructures the current provisions of
Section 273.55 into Section 273.5. The punishment would
remain the same.
Arrests: Domestic Violence Protective Orders
Existing law gives peace officers responding to a call
alleging a violation of a protective order the authority to
arrest the subject of the protective order if the peace
officer has probable cause to believe that the subject has
notice of the order and has committed an act in violation
of said order.
Existing law written also requires law enforcement to adopt
"policies (that) encourage the arrest of domestic violence
offenders if there is probable cause that an offense has
been committed. These policies also shall require the
arrest of an offender, absent exigent circumstances, if
there is probable cause that a protective order . . . has
been violated."
This bill requires the peace officer to make the arrest and
to take the subject of the restraining order into custody,
whether or not the violation occurred in the presence of
the arresting officer, "consistent with Section 13701(b)."
County Domestic Violence Review Teams
Current law authorizes counties to establish an interagency
domestic violence death review team, as specified.
This bill requires domestic violence death review teams to
show the statistical occurrence of all domestic violence
deaths in the team's county that occur under specified
circumstances.
Disclosure of Otherwise Confidential Information
Existing law generally prohibits the disclosure of
specified information, such as medical records, child abuse
reports, juvenile court proceedings and others, by and
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between government agencies and persons involved in the
investigation of deaths. Additionally, specific provisions
affecting privileged information prohibit disclosure of
information to third parties.
This bill allows member agencies or their representatives
on a county domestic violence death review team to disclose
to each other and to the team, specified information if the
death being reviewed was the result of domestic violence,
and makes it a misdemeanor for a member agency or
representative to disclose such information to an agency or
person not a member of the death review team.
Contempt of Court: Out of State Orders
Under current law, it is a misdemeanor to willfully disobey
"any process or order lawfully issued by any court."
This bill revises this provision to include out-of-state
orders, and orders pending trial.
Current law expressly includes Family Code Section 6320
orders in this section.
This bill also adds to this Family Code Section 6389,
concerning the gun prohibition relating to domestic
violence protective orders.
Child Abuse
Current law provides that any "person who willfully
inflicts upon a child any cruel or inhuman corporal
punishment or injury resulting in a traumatic condition is
guilty of a felony," as specified.
The bill clarifies this to provide that any "person who
willfully inflicts upon a child any cruel or inhuman
corporal punishment or an injury resulting in a traumatic
condition is guilty of a felony," as specified.
Shelter-Based Services Grant Program
Current law establishes in the Maternal and Child Health
Branch of the State Department of Health Services a
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comprehensive shelter-based services grant program.
This bill restores an advisory council to the department
which sunsetted in current law on January 1, 1998, for
purposes related to this grants program.
Court Transcripts
Existing law requires all written proceedings to be in no
other language than English. Specified statements in an
emergency protective order are already required to be
printed in both English and Spanish.
This bill allows all forms related to domestic violence
proceedings to be unofficially translated into other
languages and requires the Judicial Council to prepare said
translations for uniformity in the state courts.
Restraining Orders: Batterer's Programs
Existing law authorizes a court to order certain persons to
participate in batterer's counseling.
This bill clarifies this to a batterer's treatment program
approved by the probation department as provided in Section
1203.097 of the Penal Code, as specified.
Subpoenas -- Guardian ad litem
Existing law addresses service of subpoenas.
This bill authorizes a court to order a minor produced in
court and to appoint a guardian ad litem for the minor for
the purpose of receiving service of a subpoena to produce
the minor in court.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
SUPPORT : (Verified 5/19/99)
Alliance Against Family Violence & Sexual Assault
Asian Law Alliance
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Asian Pacific American Legal Center of Southern California
AVANCE Human Services, Inc.
Baldwin Park Chief of Police
California Alliance Against Domestic Violence
California Alliance Against Domestic Violence Communities
of Color Program
California Child, Youth and Family Coalition
California Commission on the Status of Women
California Organization for Women
California Peace Officers' Association
California Police Chiefs' Association
California Psychiatric Association
California State Sheriffs' Association
California Women Lawyers
California Women's Law Center
Chief of Police of the City of Baldwin Park
Children's Advocacy Institute
City of Los Angeles
Coalition for Family Equity
Defensa de Mujeres/Women's Crisis Support
Family Law Section, State Bar of California
Family Service Council of California
Family Violence Project of Jewish Family Service
Frieda Rapoport Caplan, Founder and Chairman of Frieda's
Haven Women's Center of Stanislaus
House of Ruth
Human Options: Alternatives for Abused Women and their
Children
Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles
Judge Conrad R. Aragon, East Los Angeles Municipal Court
Junior League of Los Angeles, Inc.
Kamilat
Korean Health, Education, Information & Research Center
La Casa de las Madres
Laura's House
Law Offices of Nancy Hormachea
Los Angeles Commission on Assaults Against Women
March of Dimes
Marin Abused Women's Services
Napa Emergency Women's Services
Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence
Older Women's League of California
Peace & Joy Care Center
Project INFO Community Services, Inc.
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Richard A. LeGarra
Sacramento County Sheriff's Department
State Department of Justice
Support Network for Battered Women
The Riley Center of St. Vincent De Paul Society
Trauma Foundation
Tri-Valley Haven
Women For:
Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles
Women Shelter of Long Beach
Women's and Children's Crisis Shelter, Inc.
Women's Crisis Support
YWCA Legal Advocacy Program
YWCA of Greater Los Angeles
YWCA of San Diego County
OPPOSITION : (Verified 5/19/99)
California Rifle and Pistol Association, Inc.
Coalition of Parent Support
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The author states:
"SB 218 will strengthen and create various domestic
violence laws related to gun prohibition, enforcement of
out-of-state restraining orders, counseling and sentencing
requirements, and domestic violence death review teams."
RJG:kb 5/20/99 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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