Dumanis hails enactment of 14 bills

Bonnie Dumanis
Bonnie Dumanis

SAN DIEGO (Press Release)–San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie M. Dumanis announced Monday, Oct. 6, that 14 legislative bills officially sponsored or supported by her Office to better-protect public safety, hold offenders accountable and strengthen prosecution were signed by Governor Edmund Brown during this past legislative session.  The bills include specific penalties for sex offenders who cut off their GPS device, improved support for victims of human trafficking and domestic violence, and a mandated kill switch for smartphones to thwart thieves who steal the devices.

“Working with our law enforcement partners, a bi-partisan group of legislators, and the Governor’s Office, we’ve been able to make some important changes in the law that we hope will translate into safer neighborhoods up and down the state,” said DA Dumanis.  “I’m proud of the work being done by our office to recognize areas of the law that need to be fixed and loopholes that should be closed to help victims and support our prosecutors in their pursue justice.

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The DA’s Legislative Director, Gail Stewart, works with Deputy District Attorneys to identify specific areas of the Penal Code statutes that could benefit from a change in the law. Deputy DAs draft the prospective proposals, and then the District Attorney’s Office coordinates with local Assemblymembers and Senators to determine who should author the legislative proposals. The legislative process allows prosecutors to provide expert testimony at committee hearings in support of these critical public safety issues.  In some cases, it is as just as important for Deputy DAs to provide expert testimony in opposition of certain bills because of their deleterious effect on public safety.

Following is a list of Assembly Bills sponsored or supported by the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office that have been signed into law as a result of the 2013/2014 California legislative session:

AB 2121 (GRAY) Sex Offenders: parole: disabling GPS

Summary: Current law, subject to exceptions, prohibits a person required to register as a sex offender from removing or disabling an electronic , global positioning system (GPS), or other monitoring device, or permitting another to do so, if the device is a condition of parole. This bill would recast those provisions to prohibit the person from removing, disabling, rendering inoperable, or knowingly circumventing the operation of an electronic, GPS, or other monitoring system that is required as a condition of parole, or permitting another person to perform one of those prohibited acts, except as provided.

SB 939 (BLOCK) Criminal Jurisdiction/Human-Trafficking

Summary: Current law requires, when more than one violation of certain specified provisions of law occurs in more than one jurisdictional territory, that jurisdiction for any of those offenses is in any jurisdiction where at least one of the offenses occurred if all district attorneys in counties with jurisdiction of the offenses agree to the venue. This bill would add human trafficking, pimping, and pandering to the specified offenses to which the above jurisdictional requirements apply.

AB 579 (MELENDEZ) Mandatory Supervision

Summary: Would specify that mandatory supervision begins upon release from custody. This bill contains other related provisions.

AB 1439 (SALAS) Unfair business practices: sweepstakes

Summary: Current law generally regulates false advertising and specifically prohibits certain unfair acts or practices undertaken by, or omissions of, a person in the operation of a contest, including misrepresenting the odds of winning a prize or failing to award and distribute all prizes. A violation of this provision is a misdemeanor. This bill would apply the prohibition described above to unfair acts or practices undertaken by, or omissions of, a person in the operation of a sweepstakes, as defined.

AB 1623 (ATKINS) Family Justice Centers

Summary: Would reenact and recast specified provisions to authorize, commencing January 1, 2015, any city, county, or community-based nonprofit organization to establish a multiagency, multidisciplinary family justice center to assist victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, elder or dependent adult abuse, and human trafficking, as specified. The bill would also specify additional confidentiality provisions relating to information disclosed by a victim in a family justice center, as provided, and would require each family justice center to maintain a mandatory training for all staff members, volunteers, and agency professionals.

AB 2149 (ATKINS) Local Agency Public Construction Act

Summary: The Local Agency Public Construction Act, requires counties to comply with specified procedures for contracting for public works projects, including, the use of a competitive bidding process and awarding contracts to the lowest responsible bidder. This bill would provide that those provisions of the act would also not apply to a contract entered into by the County of San Diego with a private entity for the delivery of a regional communications system and any related infrastructure to be used by public safety agencies and emergency responders located in the Counties of Imperial and San Diego.

AB 2308 (STONE) Prisoners: identification cards

Summary: Would require the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the DMV to ensure that all eligible inmates released from state prisons have valid identification cards. The bill would define “eligible inmate” for this purpose to mean an inmate who has previously held a California driver’s license or identification card, who has a useable photo on file with the DMV that is not more than 10 years old, who has no outstanding fees due for a prior California identification card, and who has provided certain other information verified by the DMV, including, among other things, the inmate’s true full name and date of birth.

AB 2379 (WEBER) Elder and Dependent Adult Abuse

Summary: Under current law, counties are authorized to establish multidisciplinary personnel teams composed of persons trained in the prevention, identification, management, or treatment of abuse of elderly or dependent adults, that may include, but need not be limited to, specified persons, including social workers with experience or training in prevention of abuse of elderly or dependent adults. This bill would add child welfare services personnel to the list of persons who may be included in those multidisciplinary personnel teams.

AB 2387 (PAN) Public Contracts

Summary: The State Civil Service Act, permits the use of personal services contracts in order to achieve cost savings and in certain other circumstances, including when the services contracted are not available within civil service. Current law requires a state agency proposing to execute a personal services contract in those certain other circumstances to notify all organizations that represent state employees who perform the type of work to be contracted, except as specified. This bill would exempt personal services contracts entered into by the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training pursuant to its contracting authority from that notification requirement.

AB 2685 (COOLEY) Victim Compensation and Government Claims

Summary: Would allow a representative of the California Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board to provide the probation department, district attorney, and court with information relevant to the board’s losses prior to the imposition of a sentence, as provided. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws.

SB 35 (PAVLEY) Wiretapping:  authorization

Summary: Current law establishes a procedure required to be followed by a prosecutor to apply for, and the court to issue, an order authorizing law enforcement to intercept a wire or electronic communication. Current law requires the Attorney General to prepare and submit an annual report to the Legislature, the Judicial Council, and the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts regarding these interceptions, as specified. This bill would extend the operation of these provisions until January 1, 2020. This bill contains other related provisions and other existing laws.

SB 962 (LENO) Smartphones

Summary: Would require that any smartphone, as defined, that is manufactured on or after July 1, 2015, and sold in California after that date, include a technological solution at the time of sale, which may consist of software, hardware, or both software and hardware, that, once initiated and successfully communicated to the smartphone, can render inoperable the essential features, as defined, of the smartphone to an unauthorized user when the smartphone is not in the possession of an authorized user.

SB 980 (LIEU) Prisoners: DNA Testing

Existing law allows an incarcerated person who has been convicted of a felony to make a written motion for the performance of forensic deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) testing according to a specified procedure. Existing law allows the court to order a hearing on the motion in the court’s discretion. This bill would instead allow the court to order a hearing on the motion if the court determines the convicted person has met specified requirements and that the hearing is necessary. This bill would, upon request of the convicted person or the convicted person’s counsel, allow a court to order the prosecutor to make all reasonable efforts to obtain, and police agencies and law enforcement laboratories to make all reasonable efforts to provide, copies of DNA lab reports, copies of evidence logs, and other specified documents.

SB 1142 (MONNING) Health Insurance Fraud

Summary: Current law requires every admitted disability insurer or other entity liable for any loss due to health insurance fraud doing business in California to pay an annual special purpose assessment that does not exceed $0.20 per year for each insured under an individual or group insurance policy it issues in this state, in order to fund increased investigation and prosecution of fraudulent disability insurance claims. This bill would instead require that the annual special purpose assessment be paid for each person in this state covered under an individual or group policy regardless of the situs of the contract or master group policyholder, and regardless of whether the insured has been issued an individual certificate of coverage, including blanket insurance.

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Preceding provided by San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis