HB 81 Domestic Violence Modifications passed, adding the crime of propelling a bodily substance or material to those that qualify as a domestic violence offense. Although we are against this in concept, we believe this is already chargeable as domestic violence and didn’t publicly oppose it.

HB 272 Child Custody Proceedings Amendments passed. This bill requires the court to consider evidence relating to domestic violence or abuse in child custody cases. Although this bill is largely outside of our scope, we are concerned that it will force trial in domestic violence criminal cases.

A top issue this session was SB 110 Domestic Violence Amendments. In 2022, the sponsor ran H.B. 196, Transfer of Domestic Violence Cases, which allowed domestic violence misdemeanor cases to be transferred directly to district court in an effort to remove de novo review in a district court after a justice court trial. This was a priority oppose bill for us, but it managed to get through due to a rescinded amendment deal. This year, the sponsor ran SB 110 to extend domestic violence case transfer to 2029. In the last two years, we have requested specific language that would clarify that the victim must be contacted first before transfer can occur, but this change was never made. In speaking with the interested parties, we were led to believe that the bill was not going to pass, yet it did again. We worked with the house sponsor to add our requested language to HB 308 Crime Victim Amendments, which restructures victims councils and addresses relief for a violation of a victim's right. We were originally against HB 308, but backed it with our requested DV transfer language and it passed. However, in the last half hour of floor-time, the sponsor of SB 110 added an amendment to a different bill that further modified the requirement. The final DV transfer law that passed is not a large deviation from what we had attempted to pass. As it stands, the amendment removes the requirement to have the alleged victim consent to the transfer and requires that the prosecutor consult with the alleged victim before the transfer.