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2009 SESSION

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Senate Committee on Courts of Justice

Chairman: Henry L. Marsh III

Clerk: Angi Murphy
Staff: J. French, M. Felch, K. Stokes
Date of Meeting: February 18, 2009
Time and Place: 2:00 PM, Senate Room A

H.B. 1693

Patron: Albo

Mandatory minimum punishment for DUI; elevated blood alcohol.  Adds an additional qualifier in DUI punishment provisions that allows use of blood alcohol testing on whole blood to be admitted into evidence in a DUI prosecution, thus allowing mandatory punishments to be imposed when the blood alcohol concentration is elevated but the test may have been performed in another, e.g., hospital, setting.

H.B. 1711

Patron: Oder

Civil immunity for charitable food donations and distributions.  Provides that any charitable organization engaged in a food distribution program for needy persons shall be exempt from civil liability arising from any injury or death resulting from the nature, age, condition, or packaging of the distributed food. In addition, the bill provides that any (i) volunteer who donates prepared food to a charitable organization engaged in a food distribution program for needy persons; (ii) restaurant and any processor, distributor, wholesaler, or retailer of food that donates unserved excess foods to any charitable organization for distribution to needy persons; and (iii) person, farmer, processor, distributor, wholesaler, food service establishment, restaurant, or retailer of food who donates food to any food bank or any second harvest certified food bank or food bank member charity shall be exempt from civil liability arising from any injury or death resulting from the nature, age, condition, or packaging of the donated food. This immunity does not apply to gross negligence, recklessness, or intentional acts.

H.B. 1851

Patron: Lingamfelter

Purchase of firearms by members of the United States Armed Forces.  Allows active duty service members of the United States Armed Forces or the Virginia National Guard to purchase more than one handgun within a 30-day period. The bill has a delayed effective date of January 1, 2010.

H.B. 1866

Patron: Janis

Court-established community service programs.  Provides that a court has the discretion to allow persons upon whom fines and costs have been imposed the option to discharge all or part of the fines or costs through the performance of community service.

H.B. 1888

Patron: Nixon

Officer endorsement of writ of fieri facias.  Eliminates the provision authorizing a judgment creditor to recover a sum not exceeding 15 percent upon the amount of the execution against an officer who fails to endorse a writ of fieri facias at the time he receives the writ and when he levies it upon the personal property of the debtor.

H.B. 1898

Patron: Watts

Sex offender registry.  Adds a number of registration requirements in order to comply with the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006. Persons required to register must submit to state or local police information relating to immigration status, telephone numbers, professional and occupational licensing, volunteer positions, physical job site locations, change in employment status, temporary lodging and motor vehicles, watercraft and aircraft regularly operated by the person. Under current law nonresident offenders must register in Virginia if they are here for employment exceeding 14 days and if they are here for any other purpose for 30 days or more, this bill reduces both time frames to seven days.

H.B. 1928

Patron: Lewis

Sex offender registration requirements.       Provides that any person who is required to register on the Sex Offender and Crimes Against Minors Registry be required to reregister and submit to be photographed within three days of any significant change in his appearance.

H.B. 1946

Patron: Peace

Statewide case and financial management systems; interface with circuit courts.  Gives the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court the responsibility for the operation and maintenance of a statewide case management system and financial management system, for related technology improvements, and requires that he permit an interface to any circuit court that uses automation or technology improvements provided by a private vendor or the locality. The costs of designing, implementing, and maintaining any such interface shall be the responsibility of the circuit court clerk. Any expenses incurred by the office of the Executive Secretary, not to exceed $104,280, related to this system shall be reimbursed through the Technology Trust Fund.

H.B. 2016

Patron: Ebbin

Abduction.  Redefines abduction to include harboring, transporting, providing, procuring, or obtaining another for the purpose of depriving him of his liberty. The bill also redefines intimidation to include withholding a person's passport or like documents. The bill also adds four new RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) crimes.

H.B. 2035

Patron: Iaquinto

Life expectancy table.  Changes table's figures that represent continued life expectancy.

H.B. 2144

Patron: Nutter

Concealed handgun permits; access to permittee information.  Protects from public disclosure permittee names and descriptive information held by the Department of State Police for purposes of entry into the Virginia Criminal Information Network. However, the information would still be available to law-enforcement agencies, officers, and agents in the course of law-enforcement duties, and nonidentifying statistical information would be available to the general public.

H.B. 2178

Patron: Scott, E.T.

Possession of ammunition by convicted felons; penalty.  Prohibits a convicted felon from possessing ammunition for a firearm. A violation is a Class 1 misdemeanor.

H.B. 2245

Patron: Barlow

Transfer of custody in a DUI arrest, etc.  Allows a law-enforcement officer to arrest without a warrant any person whom the officer has probable cause to suspect of driving while intoxicated or committing certain DUI-related offenses in the officer's presence and to thereafter transfer custody of the person suspected of any such violation to another officer, who may obtain a warrant based upon statements made to him by the arresting officer. Currently this transfer authority exists only for arrests made for drunk boating. The bill also provides that a law-enforcement officer may arrest, without a warrant, any person who commits any misdemeanor or traffic infraction, or substantially similar local ordinance, not committed in his presence, if he receives a message, from another officer who personally observed the violation, provided that the observing officer sends the message after he observes the alleged offense and positively identifies the alleged offender to the arresting officer. This bill incorporates HB 1954.

H.B. 2257

Patron: Albo

Outpatient treatment; voluntary admission.  Provides that, in determining whether a person is capable of consenting to voluntary admission, the judge or special justice shall consider evidence regarding the person's past compliance or noncompliance with treatment.

H.B. 2274

Patron: Poindexter

Internet sex offender registry information.  Allows the Internet sex offender registry information system to include a "wanted" notation for a person who is wanted for any crime. Currently, the "wanted" notation is only posted for a person who is wanted for failing to register.

H.B. 2303

Patron: Griffith

Evidence in a DUI blood test refusal proceeding.  Provides that the Supreme Court of Virginia shall create an appendix to its rules entitled "Forms Provided By the Office of the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court" and shall include in the appendix the forms provided by the Office of the Executive Secretary, including but not limited to, the form referenced in § 18.2-268.3 (refusal proceeding).

H.B. 2309

Patron: Melvin

Conditions of supervised probation. Provides that no probationer shall be kept under supervised probation solely because of his failure to make full payment of fines, fees, or costs, provided the court and attorney for the Commonwealth do not object to such removal.

H.B. 2314

Patron: Carrico

State Police Volunteer Chaplaincy Program. Allows the Superintendent of State Police to establish a Voluntary Chaplaincy Program. The Superintendent may establish guidelines regarding the selection, conduct, and supervision of volunteers, but may not regulate the volunteers' expression of religious beliefs. The bill also requires that when a volunteer chaplain provides an invocation or benediction at a Department-sanctioned event, the printed program include a dislaimer that the beliefs expressed are those of the individual, and are not endorsed or approved by the Department of State Police.

H.B. 2362

Patron: Gilbert

Drug offenses; prior convictions.  Specifies that prior out-of-state convictions for substantially similar offenses count as prior offenses for the purpose of enhancing punishment for possession of marijuana and for manufacturing, selling, giving, distributing, or possessing with intent to manufacture, sell, give, or distribute a controlled substance or an imitation controlled substance.

H.B. 2381

Patron: Scott, J.M.

Protective orders; companion animals.  Provides that a court may include in a protective order provisions for the protection of companion animals, possessed, leased, kept, or held by the party, or his family or household members, for whose benefit the protective order was entered.

H.B. 2393

Patron: Bell

Animal control officers deemed law-enforcement officers.  Adds animal control officers to the crime of obstruction of justice for the purpose of imposing enhanced punishment when the victim of such a crime is a law-enforcement officer.

H.B. 2400

Patron: Bell

Sexual assault response teams.  Requires attorneys for the Commonwealth to establish sexual assault response teams. Each team would be responsible for discussion of establishment of policies and coordinating responses to sexual assault incidents and to establish guidelines for community response.

H.B. 2541

Patron: Amundson

Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation; criminal records checks. Requires the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation (DPOR) to obtain criminal history record information from the Department of State Police regarding individuals for initial licensure as real estate licensees.

H.B. 2542

Patron: Valentine

"Move-over" law.  Expands the class of stationary vehicles for which motorists must, if safe to do so, move left by providing a new definition of "emergency vehicle."

H.B. 2623

Patron: Loupassi

Expansion of jurisdiction of multijurisdiction grand jury to include investigation of trademark infringement.  Expands jurisdiction of multijurisdiction grand jury to include investigation of trademark infringement.

H.B. 2637

Patron: Cline

Arrests for which fingerprints are required.  Requires that fingerprints be taken and forwarded to the Central Criminal Records Exchange upon an arrest for a violation of a protective order issued under Title 16.1. Fingerprints are already authorized for misdemeanor violations of arrests for violation of stalking protective orders issued under Title 18.2.