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2010 SESSION

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Senate Committee on Courts of Justice

Chairman: Henry L. Marsh III

Clerk: Angi Murphy
Date of Meeting: February 3, 2010
Time and Place: 2:00 p.m., Senate Room A
UPDATED -- 2/3/10 9:00 a.m.

S.B. 258

Patron: Lucas

Funding of circuit court clerks' offices; fees.  Creates a local fee retention funding method for circuit court clerks' offices in which the clerk retains fees locally and pays 20 percent of gross fees to the state to be held by the Compensation Board in a trust fund beginning July 1, 2012. Currently, fees are paid to the state and apportioned by the Compensation Board back to localities. The trust fund created would be used to fund those offices that did not receive enough revenue in fees to maintain operations. The bill also gives the clerk discretion in docketing judgments in favor of the Commonwealth, and removes the prohibition against charging fees for orders of publication; entries on judgments and liens; filing appraisers', special receivers', and commissioners' reports; attested copies of final orders or decrees; and filing lumberman's mark. Finally, the bill requires that attorney fees for collection of moneys due the Commonwealth be paid over and above the moneys collected, not out of the moneys collected.

S.B. 444

Patron: Reynolds

Destruction of live marijuana plants. Provides that where a seizure of more than 10 suspected live marijuana plants is made in connection with any drug prosecution or investigation, the appropriate law-enforcement agency may retain 10 of the seized plants and destroy the remainder by direction of the chief law-enforcement officer or his designee, without a court order, when: it is not reasonably possible to preserve all of the plants in place or to remove the plants to another location; random and representative samples of the plants to be destroyed are retained for evidentiary purposes; and photographs or video recordings are taken to record the total amount of the suspected marijuana plants seized.

S.B. 446

Patron: Quayle

Penalty for certain crimes against adults 60 years of age or older.  Increases criminal penalties when the victim of the offense is 60 years of age or older and the offender knows or reasonably should know the victim of the offense is 60 years of age or older, as follows: Any person who commits a grand larceny shall be punished by a term of imprisonment of not less than two nor more than 20 years. Any person who obtains money by false pretenses is guilty of a Class 3 felony. Any person who signs another's name to a writing is guilty of a Class 4 felony. Any person who commits an identity theft resulting in financial loss of greater than $200 is guilty of a Class 5 felony. Any person who commits a second or subsequent offense pursuant to § 18.2-213.2 shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of two years, in addition to the punishment provided for such offense.

S.B. 504

Patron: Smith

Forced or coerced abortion prohibited; penalty.  Provides that any person who forces or coerces a pregnant female of any age to have an abortion against her will is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. However, if such a violation is committed by the father or putative father of the unborn child when the pregnant female is less than 18 years of age and the father or putative father is 18 years of age or older, the father or putative father is guilty of a Class 6 felony.

S.B. 556

Patron: Herring

Crimes against incapacitated or elder adults; penalty. Provides that any person who commits an offense set forth in Chapter 4 (crimes against the person), Chapter 5 (crimes against property), or Chapter 6 (crimes involving fraud) of Title 18.2, knowing or having reason to know that the victim of the offense is an incapacitated or elder adult is guilty of a separate and distinct Class 1 misdemeanor if the underlying offense is a misdemeanor and a separate and distinct Class 6 felony if the underlying offense is a felony. The bill adds that if the offender is a person responsible for the care of the victim, punishment for a misdemeanor shall include a mandatory minimum term of confinement of 30 days, and punishment for a felony shall include a mandatory minimum term of confinement of six months.

S.B. 586

Patron: Marsden

Crimes by juveniles; notice given to schools; exclude Class 3 and 4 misdemeanors.  Provides that if a petition is filed by an intake officer alleging a juvenile has committed an act that would be a crime if committed by an adult, a report of such petition need not be filed with the superintendent of the school division where the juvenile attends school if the crime would be a Class 3 or Class 4 misdemeanor if committed by an adult.

S.B. 602

Patrons: Newman, Hurt

Human infant; independent and separate existence. Provides that for the purposes of homicide and child abuse the determination of an independent and separate existence of a human infant from its mother shall not be conditioned solely upon whether or not the umbilical cord has been cut or the placenta detached.

S.B. 615

Patron: Howell

Conditions of sentence suspension, etc.; credits toward reducing length of probation.  Requires the Department of Corrections to develop a supervision plan for every offender placed on supervised probation and allows for credits to be applied toward reducing the offender's time on supervised probation by as much as one-half based on the achievement of goals established by the Department. The application of credits is to be determined by the chief probation and parole officer and does not require court action.

S.B. 617

Patron: Howell

Criminal procedure; sentencing revocation report worksheets. Requires sentencing revocation report worksheets in all probation revocation and sentence suspension revocation cases in which the defendant was under the direct supervision of the probation and parole district office.

S.B. 670

Patron: McDougle

Payment of fines and costs.  Requires a person owing fines and costs for a traffic or criminal case who is incarcerated and participates in a correctional facility work program to contribute part of his pay to the fines and costs. Currently this provision applies only to defendants who are on work release, home/electronic incarceration, or nonconsecutive days program.

S.B. 688

Patron: Reynolds

Arrest without warrant; DUI arrests. Expands the DUI crimes for which an officer may arrest a person without a warrant. The bill removes the requirement that an arrest for DUI be made within three hours of an accident and allows an arrest to be made for misdemeanor offenses of DUI or "drunk boating" to be made by any officer, whether or not the offense occurred in his presence, and removes language from the law providing for transfer of custody from one officer to another in drunk boating incidents.

S.B. 728

Patron: Quayle

Child support orders; emergency.  Eliminates the ability of the Department of Social Services to order 2.5 percent cash medical support payments from the noncustodial parent when the child is a recipient of Medicaid or the Family Access to Medical Insurance Security Plan. The bill also terminates existing 2.5 percent payments and requires the Department to repay any 2.5 percent payments received since July 1, 2009.

EMERGENCY