HCS HB 62 -- CRIME

SPONSOR:  Lipke

COMMITTEE ACTION:  Voted "do pass" by the Committee on Crime
Prevention by a vote of 11 to 1.

This substitute changes the laws regarding crime.  In its main
provisions, the substitute:

(1)  Prohibits law enforcement agencies from fingerprinting a
juvenile older than 15 years and six months of age who is alleged
to have violated a traffic ordinance unless the juvenile is
certified as an adult and requires law enforcement agencies to
forward a photograph and certification papers to the central
repository in cases where the juvenile has been certified as an
adult;

(2)  Requires the municipal prosecuting attorney to notify the
central repository of his or her decision not to file criminal
charges on any charge referred to him or her;

(3)  Requires municipal court clerks to furnish the central
repository with a record of all charges filed in cases where the
central repository has an arrest record or fingerprint and
expands the list of crimes that are reportable to the central
repository;

(4)  Allows a court to order law enforcement agencies or court
marshals to fingerprint an individual at the time of any court
appearance if the person has not been fingerprinted for an
offense in which a fingerprint is required.  The order must
contain the offense, charge code, date of the offense, and any
other information necessary to complete the fingerprint card;

(5)  Revises the process by which a qualifying entity may obtain
a criminal record of certain individuals from the State Highway
Patrol;

(6)  Specifies that the maximum fine for all municipal ordinance
violations in the City of Kansas City will be $1,000 except for
ordinances requiring compliance by an industrial user with any
pretreatment standard or requirement;

(7)  Requires a photograph to be taken of an incarcerated
individual prior to release and made available to the victim upon
his or her request;

(8)  Specifies that a detainer will not be lodged against any
person confined in a correctional facility until the Director of
the Department of Corrections receives a certified copy of a
warrant and a written request by the issuing agency to place the
detainer;

(9)  Specifies that one member of the Board of Probation and
Parole will be designated as vice-chairman;

(10)  Allows offenders to appear before the board by means of a
video conference, rather than personal appearance, at the
discretion of the board;

(11)  Removes the provision that requires the prosecuting
attorney to appear in behalf of the Director of the Department of
Revenue in circuit court cases or hearings reviewing
administrative decisions regarding alcohol-related traffic
offenses;

(12)  Specifies that any person convicted of criminal securities
fraud will be fined up to $1 million, imprisoned for up to 10
years, or both;

(13)  Creates the crime of failure to appear if a person
knowingly fails to appear before any court or judicial officer as
required.  Failure to appear will be a class D felony if the
criminal matter for which the person was released included a
felony, a class A misdemeanor if the criminal matter includes a
misdemeanor, or an infraction if the criminal matter includes
only an infraction or a violation of a municipal ordinance;

(14)  Specifies that the statute of limitations for an arson
offense is five years;

(15)  Specifies that the board will not have authority to
supervise offenders who have pled guilty to or been found guilty
of rape and sodomy since these offenders will no longer be
eligible for probation;

(16)  Revises the definitions of "domestic assault offense" and
"intoxication-related offense" to include any offense committed
in another state or any federal, tribal, or military offense
which, if committed in Missouri, would be considered a domestic
assault offense or an intoxication-related offense;

(17)  Specifies that a person who commits the crime of assault of
a probation and parole officer will be guilty of a class A
felony;

(18)  Expands the crime of tampering with a judicial officer to
include juvenile officers and deputy juvenile officers;

(19)  Specifies that the term "stealing-related offense" will
include robbery and clarifies that a person who has pled guilty
to or been found guilty of two separate stealing offenses which
were committed on two separate occasions will be guilty of a
class B felony;

(20)  Specifies that a person will be guilty of the crime of
making a false declaration, a class B misdemeanor, if he or she
provides any verbal false statement regarding his or her identity
which the person knows to be untrue;

(21)  Increases the penalty for the crime of making a false
report from a class B misdemeanor to a class A misdemeanor;

(22)  Increases the penalty for the crime of resisting or
interfering with arrest, detention, or stop from a class D felony
to a class C felony and specifies that resisting or interfering
with an arrest for a probation warrant, a parole warrant, a
capias warrant, or a bench warrant where the warrant issued was
related to a felony will be a class D felony;

(23)  Creates the crime of disarming a peace or correctional
officer if a person intentionally removes from or deprives the
peace or correctional officer of the use of his or her firearm or
other deadly weapon while the officer is acting within the scope
of his or her official duties.  The crime, a class C felony, does
not include situations in which the person does not know or could
not reasonably have known that the person was a peace or
correctional officer or if the officer was engaged in felonious
conduct at the time of the disarmament;

(24)  Expands the crime of tampering with a judicial proceeding
to include influencing the official action of a state prosecuting
or circuit attorney;

(25)  Prohibits the use or possession of an alcohol beverage
vaporizer.  Any substance that has been approved by the federal
Food and Drug Administration as an over-the-counter or
therapeutic drug product administered by an authorized medical
practitioner is exempt;

(26)  Transfers the administration of the Crime Victims'
Compensation Fund from the Division of Workers' Compensation
within the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations to the
Department of Public Safety;

(27)  Includes pharmacists and pharmacies to the list of medical
providers who must verify injuries of crime victims if requested
by the department;

(28)  Requires crime victims to be paid up to $250 from the Crime
Victims' Compensation Fund to replace clothing, bedding, or other
personal items seized by law enforcement as evidence of a crime;

(29)  Allows the department to receive gifts and contributions to
be credited to the fund for the benefit of crime victims;

(30)  Allows a victim to be represented by an appointed person
instead of appearing in person during an offender's parole and
probation revocation hearings.  The victim's appointee who honors
any subpoena to testify in or attend a criminal proceeding is
protected from discharge by any employer or from using vacation,
personal, or sick leave to attend any criminal proceeding;

(31)  Allows crime victims to receive, upon request from the
Department of Corrections, a photograph taken of the defendant
prior to release from incarceration;

(32)  Specifies that the State Highway Patrol must develop and
make available to appropriate medical providers evidentiary
collection kits.  The kits will be used by the provider to
perform forensic examinations for the purpose of gathering
evidence of a sexual offense.  The Department of Public Safety
must make payments to the providers to cover the charges of the
forensic examination if the victim or the victim's guardian
consents in writing to the examination and the report of the
examination is made on a form approved by the Attorney General
with the advice of the department.  The payments may be made from
money appropriated to the department or the Crime Victims'
Compensation Fund if the victim is an eligible claimant;

(33)  Specifies that circuit courts do not have to use a
reasonable doubt standard when determining if an individual is a
sexually violent predator; and

(34)  Creates the Reverend Nathaniel Cole Memorial Pursuit
Reduction Grant.  Any money appropriated or donated to the fund
will be used to provide grants, in the amount of a 50% match, to
urban police departments which purchase real-time tagging and
tracking pursuit management systems.  An applicant's eligibility
will be determined by the Director of the Department of Public
Safety.

FISCAL NOTE:  Estimated Cost on General Revenue Fund of More than
$317,734 in FY 2010, More than $358,817 in FY 2011, and More than
$366,583 in FY 2012.  Estimated Cost on Other State Funds of
$207,458 in FY 2010, FY 2011, and FY 2012.

PROPONENTS:  Supporters say that the bill has several provisions
that clarify existing law and provide consistency with domestic
abuse definitions.

Testifying for the bill were Representative Lipke; Office of the
Secretary of State; Missouri Coalition Against Domestic and
Sexual Violence; and Missouri Police Chiefs' Association.

OPPONENTS:  Those who oppose the bill say that it contains
provisions that require incident reports involving police
officers to be closed records which is in violation of the Open
Meetings and Records Law, commonly known as the Sunshine Law.

Testifying against the bill were Missouri Press Association;
Missouri Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers; Missouri
Broadcasters Association; and American Civil Liberties Union of
Eastern Missouri.

Missouri House of Representatives
95th General Assembly, 1st Regular Session
Last Updated November 17, 2009 at 9:23 am