Victims Bills
Passed:
HB 199 Voluntary Firearm Safekeeping Amendments prohibits a law enforcement agency that receives a firearm from the owner or the owner's cohabitant for safekeeping from returning the firearm to the owner if the owner: is a restricted person; or has been arrested and booked into jail on a class A misdemeanor or felony domestic violence offense, has had a court review the probable cause statement and determine that probable cause existed for the arrest, and is subject to a jail release agreement or a jail release court order. This bill also directs the Department of Public Safety to create a pamphlet detailing a domestic violence victim's rights to commit the perpetrator's firearm to a law enforcement agency.
HB 244 Utah Victim Services Commission and Victim Services creates the Utah Victim Services Commission within CCJJ, a member of which is a criminal defense attorney. We had originally negotiated with the sponsor to include both a criminal defense attorney and a member of the Indigent Defense Commission, but the IDC was taken out of the final version without our knowledge.
HB 297 Victim Services Amendments requires CCJJ and law enforcement agencies to compile data on sexual assaults. It restricts the time period in which a victim of rape or incest can get an abortion to 18 weeks and makes performing an abortion on a victim of rape or incest after 18 weeks a second degree felony.
HB 314 Remedies for Victims of Domestic Violence Amendments allows victims of domestic violence to terminate their rental agreements with a lower termination fee and get an expungement for an eviction.
HB 509 Criminal Protective Order Amendments allows a victim to request a hearing regarding a continuous protective order for domestic violence and defines criminal protective order hearings as "important criminal justice hearings," thereby requiring prosecutors to use reasonable efforts to notify the victim of any such hearing requested by the defendant.
SB 293 Expungement Revisions provides that if there is a victim of an offense, the victim may object to a petition to expunge within 60 days.
Failed:
HB 106 HIV Testing Modifications was not heard in committee. This bill would have created a process to obtain a court order if an alleged sexual offender refuses an HIV test at the request of an alleged victim. This bill will be back next session. It raises obvious 4th Amendment concerns in that there is not even probable cause required to believe the subject of the “order” has an STI.
HB 356 Abortion Modifications would have allowed a victim of rape or incest who is seeking an abortion to file a restricted law enforcement report in order to comply with the physician reporting requirements. It also would have allowed the victim to make a non-binding request that law enforcement not pursue charges or investigate such a report. This bill was never heard in committee.
SB 88 Abortion Amendments would have removed the provision requiring a physician to verify a report has been made to law enforcement before the physician performs an abortion on a woman who is pregnant as a result of rape or incest. This bill failed in committee.