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ACROSS SESSIONS
- Subject Index: Since 1995
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Developed and maintained by the Division of Legislative Automated Systems.
2004 SESSION
Chairman: Kenneth W. Stolle
Clerk: Larry M. Girvin
Staff: Jescey French, Mary K. Felch
Date of Meeting: February 2, 2004
Time and Place: Monday, 9:00 A.M., Senate Room A
Patron: Devolites
Appeal bond in support cases. Provides that part of a support order of a juvenile and domestic relations district court may be appealed without appealing the entire order and that no appeal bond is required if the finding of a support arrearage is not appealed and support is not suspended during the pendency of the appeal.
Impact Statements
Patron: Cuccinelli
Judgment rate of interest. Makes the judgment rate of interest for judgments not relating to a contract the prime rate plus two percent set as of the July 1 immediately prior to the date of judgment. Under current law, the judgment rate of interest is nine percent. A money judgment entered in an action arising from a contract shall carry interest at the rate lawfully charged on such contract, or the prime rate plus two percent set as of the July 1 immediately prior to the date of judgment, whichever is higher. Under current law, the judgment rate is the rate lawfully charged on such contract, or nine percent, whichever is higher.
Patron: Reynolds
Refusal of DUI breath or blood tests; procedures. Removes the requirement that the magistrate reaffirm to a DUI arrestee his liability for refusal to submit to a preliminary blood or breath test after the arresting officer has already informed the arrestee.
Patron: Norment
Transmission of prisoner orders. Provides that the certified copies of the orders that the clerk of court must transmit to the Department of Corrections when a person is convicted of a felony shall be transmitted by facsimile or by electronic mail. Under current law the method of transmission is not specified. The bill also clarifies that the 30 days in which the transmission must occur runs from the date the judge enters the final order.
Patron: Norment
Technology Trust Fund Fee. Increases the fee from $3 to $5 and allows the use of the Trust Fund for developing and updating land records automation plans for individual clerks' offices; modernizing land records in individual clerks' offices and providing remote access to land records statewide; obtaining and updating office automation and information technology equipment; preserving, maintaining and enhancing court records, including, but not limited to, the costs of repairs, maintenance, service contracts and system upgrades; and improving public access to court records. The bill allows the clerk to use the Trust Fund for technology improvements in the law and chancery and criminal divisions after implementation of automation of land records with statewide remote access.
Patron: Devolites
Computer trespass. Provides that adding or altering information without authority is computer trespass. Adds to the aggravating factors for which computer trespass is elevated to a Class 6 felony using a computer in a way that involves a computer virus or similar computer program and obtaining the ability to use three or more computers or computer networks without notice to or knowledge of and express or implied permission of, the owners of those computers or computer networks, or a prior existing personal, business or contractual relationship with the owner.
Impact Statements
Patron: O'Brien
Criminal procedure; conservators of the peace. Adds special agents of the Department of Homeland Security to the list of those who are conservators of the peace.
Patron: Stolle
Killing an unborn child. Provides that any person who maliciously, willfully, deliberately, unlawfully and with premeditation kills the fetus of another is guilty of a Class 2 felony (20 years to life).
Impact Statements
Patron: Stolle
DUI. Creates a rebuttable presumption that bail shall be denied to a person arrested for DUI, DUI manslaughter, DUI maiming or commercial DUI if he has previously been convicted of one of those offenses. The bill also extends the seven-day administrative suspension for a DUI arrest until the trial of the matter is completed if the person has previously been convicted of a DUI related offense. In addition, the sentence of a person convicted of DUI while driving on a revoked license who has previously been convicted of DUI is to run concurrently with any other sentence. The bill also includes DUI as a reportable offense to CCRE by law-enforcement officers upon arrest. Currently, it is specifically excluded.
Impact Statements
Patron: Stolle
Indigent Defense Commission. Establishes the Indigent Defense Commission, which will establish criteria for court-appointed lawyers as well as assume the duties of the existing Public Defender Commission, which is abolished by this bill. All of the existing Public Defender offices are retained and no new ones are added.
Patron: Williams
Virginia Fraud Against Taxpayers Act. Provides that the false claims provisions of the Act do not apply to claims, records or statements relating to state or local taxes. Current law exempts only income taxes.
Patron: Norment
Enhanced punishment for third DUI, etc. Provides that a person charged with third offense DUI is rebuttably presumed ineligible for bail. The bill removes the 10-year limit on third DUI enhanced penalties and provides that whenever any person is convicted of DUI, the court shall dismiss any reckless driving charge. Currently, when a person is charged with both and is convicted of one or the other, the remaining charge is dismissed.
Impact Statements
Patron: Norment
Conservators of the peace. Provides that all conservator of the peace appointments are void on September 15, 2004, unless the conservator has obtained a valid registration issued by the Department of Criminal Justice Services. In addition, each conservator must provide a temporary registration letter issued by the Department of Criminal Justice Services prior to seeking appointment by the circuit court. A circuit court appointment letter must be filed with the Department of Criminal Justice Services in order to receive a special conservator of the peace photo registration card.
Impact Statements
Patron: Rerras
Admission to bail: DUI. Creates a rebuttable presumption that bail shall be denied to a person arrested for DUI if he has two previous convictions for any of the following: DUI, DUI manslaughter and DUI maiming.
Patron: Rerras
DUI; penalty. Provides for a mandatory minimum sentence of 180 days (six months) for a third DUI conviction in 10 years. Under current law the mandatory minimum sentence is 10 days for a third offense within 10 years and 30 days for a third offense within five years. The offense will remain a Class 6 felony, which carries a penalty of one to five years confinement.
Impact Statements
Patron: Whipple
Public defender offices. Requires the establishment of a public defender office in Arlington County and the City of Falls Church.
Impact Statements
Patron: Ticer
Juvenile petition. Allows a juvenile to file a petition on his own behalf if he alleges sufficient facts to invoke the jurisdiction of the juvenile and domestic relations district court and if the petition is authorized by an intake officer. The intake officer may proceed informally to resolve the matter or may permit the juvenile to file a petition. If a petition is filed, the court must appoint a guardian ad litem to represent the juvenile.
Patron: Mims
Driving under the influence; penalty. Changes the wording of the penalty provisions for a third (or fourth) offense by stating that the enhanced penalties apply if a person is convicted "three or more times" rather than if a person is "convicted of a third offense."
Impact Statements
Patron: Mims
Mandatory minimum jail term for DUI based on blood alcohol content. Imposes a mandatory minimum jail term of five days upon conviction for DUI (10 days for second offense) for a blood alcohol content of 0.16 percent as opposed to the current 0.20 percent.
Impact Statements
Patron: Mims
Penalties for driving while intoxicated. Removes sanctions for multiple DUI offenses occurring within five years and raises sanctions for multiple DUI offenses occurring within 10 years to include a mandatory minimum sentence of one year for a third offense committed within 10 years. The bill increases additional punishments predicated on blood alcohol levels registered at the time of the offense. The bill punishes a refusal to submit to a blood test as a Class 6 felony with a mandatory minimum sentence of one year if the defendant has two prior DUI convictions.
Impact Statements
Patron: Mims
Dismissal of one of dual charges for driving while intoxicated and reckless driving upon conviction of other charge. Provides that when any person charged with DUI or any similar ordinance of any county, city, or town and reckless driving or any ordinance of any county, city or town incorporating the reckless driving statute growing out of the same act, is tried simultaneously for both charges or acts, and is convicted of one of these charges, the court shall dismiss the remaining charge.
Patron: Devolites
Newspapers; legal notices. Requires that in order for a legal notice published in a newspaper to meet the statutory standard, it must be published in the Commonwealth. A newspaper shall be deemed published in the Commonwealth if it maintains its principal office in the Commonwealth for the purposes of gathering news, soliciting advertisements and determining the newspaper's form and content, and if it is printed in the Commonwealth. There is an exception for general circulation areas where there is no newspaper published in the Commonwealth.
Impact Statements
Patron: Obenshain
Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry Act. Adds to the list of those required to register under the act, any person who has solicited or has attempted to solicit, by use of a communications system, (i) a person under 18 years of age for the purpose of enticing that person to perform in or be a subject of sexually explicit visual material or otherwise be involved in the production, publication, sale, or possession with the intent to distribute such material, or (ii) a person under the age of 18 years of age for the purpose of violating the law that prohibits the possession of child pornography.
Patron: Colgan
Custody and confinement for juvenile offenses. Allows juvenile intake officers and magistrates to order confinement of a person 18 years of age or older in a jail rather than a juvenile detention home for an offense that occurred prior to the person obtaining the age of 18. Currently this authority is limited to judges.
Patron: Colgan
Duty to inform of right to counsel in juvenile court. Removes probation officers from the series of persons who must inform children and parents of their right to counsel and indigency criteria in certain juvenile court proceedings. Under current law, either the judge, clerk or probation officer must inform a child who is alleged to be delinquent or in need of services or supervision and the child's parent of the child's right to counsel and must inform a parent of the parent's right to counsel for an adjudicatory hearing where a child is alleged to be abused or neglected or for termination of parental rights.
Patron: Colgan
Juvenile intake; notification to school superintendent. Adds a criminal act committed for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with any criminal street gang pursuant to § 18.2-46.2 to those enumerated crimes triggering a requirement that the intake officer provide notice to a school superintendent that a petition has been filed alleging a juvenile committed an act that would be a crime if committed by an adult.
Patron: Williams
Chamberlin Hotel. Gives the consent of the Commonwealth for the extension of the lease for the operation of the Chamberlin Hotel at Fort Monroe for 50 years and expands the approved uses to include a senior housing facility with an assisted living component and an adjoining parking garage. The bill also includes an emergency provision.
EMERGENCY
Impact Statements
Patron: Ruff
Occoneechee State Park. Amends Chapter 809 of the 2002 Acts of Assembly to provide a two-year extension for the authority granted to the Department of Conservation and Recreation to amend a lease with the Secretary of the Army for the purpose of providing additional recreational facilities, not to be operated by the Department, at Occoneechee State Park in Mecklenberg County.
Patron: O'Brien
Serious or Habitual Offender Comprehensive Action Program (SHOCAP). Provides that a juvenile who has been convicted of one criminal street gang felony qualifies for SHOCAP. Under current law a juvenile must have been convicted of three felonies or misdemeanors to qualify, unless the felonies are murder, attempted murder, armed robbery or malicious wounding. SHOCAP is a program that provides control, supervision and treatment for serious or habitual juvenile offenders.
Patron: Saslaw
Report of arrest of adult school students to school superintendent for certain offenses. Requires that a public school student who is 18 or over and arrested for certain offenses be reported to the division superintendent. The offenses are the same as those for which a juvenile student would be reported (e.g., firearms; homicide, felonious assault, sexual assault; drug offenses; arson; burglary; robbery). The bill extends this list to include criminal street gang related activity.
Patron: Rerras
Establishing the ownership and management relationship of the sailing vessel Virginia. Authorizes the Governor to enter into an agreement with the Virginia Maritime Heritage Foundation for the operation of the sailing vessel Virginia. Under the bill, ownership of the Virginia is transferred to the Commonwealth; however, the operation and maintenance of the Virginia is the responsibility of the Foundation. The bill sets out the minimum requirements of the agreement and that the Virginia is to be used for trade missions, marketing, economic development, film production, festivals and other events.